Darjeeling Residents help fire victims

Residents of the hill town have decided to come forward to help victims of the fire that gutted the houses of 11 families in the Ava Art Gallery area last Thursday.

Four houses were completely destroyed in the blaze as fire engines failed to reach the site owing to illegal structures blocking the road leading to the buildings.

The effort of the local people seems to be particularly helpful, as administrative and political relief is yet to come in, a source said.

To start with, residents of Barakakjhora have already given shelter to nine of the families at Annupurna Guest House, where they can stay till they find a proper place. “We will have to pay a nominal amount to the guest house authorities. We are glad that these people, who have lost everything to the fire, now have a place to stay,” said Seshmani Gurung, the secretary of Koseli Sangh, a social organisation in Barakakjhora.

While aid is pouring in both in kind and cash, Koseli Sangh has opened a relief fund at the UTI Bank in Darjeeling. “We are focusing on collecting money as the families need it the most. We have opened an account at the UTI Bank and anyone willing to contribute can deposit the amount there,” said Gurung. The account number of the Barakakjhora Fire Victims’ Relief Fund is 346010100015747. Rotary Club of Kalimpong and the local Nava Yuva Sangh have already paid Rs 5,000 and Rs 1,201.

The residents are also trying to address the problem of the lack of enough fire hydrants in town. “A meeting with different government departments is slated for tomorrow. We want rehabilitation of the victims, pulling down of illegal structures and installation of fire hydrants,” said Gurung.

Source: The Telepgraph

No cheers over tea meet

A huge turnout of labourers at the State Tea Garden and Forest Village Folk Cultural Festival yesterday must have pleased chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, but it could barely paper over the crisis in the brew industry.

“We came here yesterday hoping that the chief minister would declare some schemes for our benefit,” said a worker of Ramjhora tea estate. “But there was nothing new in his speech.”

Then there was the thronging crowd at the Tea Board’s stall offering free cups of tea. Board officials put it down to the success of their campaign to encourage tea consumption, but the truth was completely different. “The factory is closed and we cannot afford to buy tea for daily consumption,” said Budhuram Baraik, a worker of Kanthalguri estate, sipping a hot cuppa.

The food stalls opened by local self-helps groups (SHGs), on the other hand, were deserted. “Sales were abysmal,” said Kalpana Sarkar of Kusum, an SHG. She said the garden labourers did not have enough money to buy boiled egg, ghugni and payesh.

There were other indications of the workers’ plight. The only shadow of hope came from the district magistrate, R. Ranjit. “The chief minister has instructed us to take up the problems faced by the labourers and solve them,” he said.

Buddha pledge
The chief minister announced in Holong, Jaldapara, this morning that the first ever wildlife hospital and research centre in the state would be set up at Madarihat, 54 km from Alipurduar. Later, at a rally organised by Brahmaputra Jalpath Dabi Samiti at Baxirhat, Cooch Behar, he said he has talked to the Prime Minister about reviving the waterway between Bengal and Assam via Bangladesh and Myanmar. Bhattacharjee also inaugurated the Teesta Ganga festival at Dewanhaat and, at a programme at Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, termed the Seed Corporation “useless”.

Source: The Telegraph