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DARJ-SIKKIM MERGERWill the demand findtakers on eitherside of Rangpo?

DARJEELING: With the elections approaching,most political parties in the Darjeeling hills arepreparing to dust the Gorkhaland issue andre-present it before the people. And yet, thereis a faction which is throwing up a newdemand - Darjeeling’s “merger” with Sikkim.

TURN TO pg 6 FOR DETAILS

THARPU, WEST SIKKIM: Sup-porters of the Sikkim DemocraticFront and the Congress-I got intoa major fracas at Tharpu in WestSikkim on Saturday, 6 March, withthe police having to fire blank shotsin the air to bring the mob undercontrol. Vehicles filled with sup-porters of both parties pelted stonesand threw bottles at each other in asavage display of pre-poll violence.

The seed of the violence waslaid a day earlier when SDF support-ers are said to have targeted vehi-cles led by Ashok Tsong, CongressWorking President, who was on hisway to meet his party secretary. Ac-cording to Congress supporters, theincident took place just below theresidence of the area MLA and LawMinister, RB Subba. Both sides nowmaintain that the violence was trig-gered by abusive sloganeering by the

other side. When the dust settled, itwas the Congress which was at thereceiving end with two of its vehi-cles completely damaged. Five peo-ple were arrested in connection withthis incident.

In retaliation, Ashok Tsong leda convoy of fifty vehicles to the areathe next day. Tension escalatedwhen Jorethang MLA Bhoj Raj Raialso reached the spot with four ve-

hicles filled with party youth. Thesituation took a violent turn withinminutes and soon youth from bothsides were trading insults andabuses and hurling stones and bot-tles at each other.

At the time SP West, AK Chandand Investigating Officer for theprevious day’s incident, SKShreshta, were present at the spot.

ANAND OBEROI

turn to pg 3

MOTHER HANGS SELF,BECOMES 10TH IN THE

FAMILY TO COMMITSUICIDE

DETAILS ON pg 3

Holy watermeasures out,

Bhum Chupredicts goodyear aheadDETAILS ON pg 5

2; NOW! ; 08 March, 2004

C M Y K

by PRAVEEN MOKTAN

GANGTOK 08 MARCH, 2004

NOW!FIRST WITH THE NEWS

ED-SPACE

From napping to Napster

Dear readers,There you have it. All the speculation over what hadhappened to NOW! when it missed two Wednesdaysare now cleared. The paper was off the newsstands inpreparation for its new avataar - the Daily.

Now, be prepared to be hit with the latest develop-ments even before the morning cuppa has boiled tothe right brew. NOW! will be hitting the homes earlyevery morning and in the present times of campaign-ing, maligning and stocktaking, we will make sure thatwe are the first with the news.

The decision to go daily has been prompted as much

by reader response as by the changing times. The regionprepares for elections and as a newspaper it was importantfor us to keep people abreast with latest developments.There was the option of going biweekly, but we decided toplunge in all the way. The economics and logistics of run-ning a daily are daunting no doubt, but we are convincedthat our readers will help us tide over such limitations.

Here, we would like to thank our readers and adver-tisers who supported us through our nearly two years asa weekly and hope that they will remain with us in thefuture too.

NOW!

KUDOS TO THE CM ON

SAMDUPTSE

Nothing happens by accident,the heading of the lead article

in the last edition was the most suit-able and highly imaginative phraseto appreciate and endorse the greatwork of our chief minister and hisgovernment.

Anybody who does not supportthis view is advised to go toSamdruptse and see the magnifi-cent, mesmerizing, 135 ft, glitter-ing in gold, tallest statue of GuruPadmasambhava. It was no one butthe chief minister who conceivedthis historical project. This accen-tuates his visionary capacity. Therecould be no better way to honourthe great Guru Rinpoche whoblessed our land. His blessings arealways with us and we will con-tinue to live in an atmosphere oflasting peace and prosperity.

Secondly, the installation ofsuch historical statue has added onemore dimension to the tourism sec-tor. This magnificent statue of GuruRinpoche will surely attract moretourists to Sikkim.

It is a known fact that naturalbeauty alone does not serve the pur-pose of attracting tourists. A tour-ist destination with historical sig-nificance and places that are devel-oped with historical monumentsdefinitely attract more tourists. Thisis what must have prompted Mr.Chamling to go ahead with such amagnificent project.

With the coming up of the

�LETTERSThe Violent Code of Conduct

The Soreong incident of Saturday is only a pointer to the things tocome. Unfortunate though it may sound, violence has become aninseparable part of campaigning not only in Sikkim, but all over thenation. It is as routine and as expected as the enforcement of themodel code of conduct by the election commission. Much as theparty youth and their leaders are to be blamed for the over zealousdisplay of muscle-power, this strutting is forced more by the publicperception of what constitutes an ascendent political clout. It is thepublic’s equation of muscle with popularity which forces most politi-cal outfits to encourage their youth to frequent and public displaysof strength. It is also pointless to try and fix the blame on any par-ticular section since political violence is as much about instigationas it is about execution. Sikkim has already been reintroduced tohow much noise even a Gypsy-full of youth can make and it is onlynatural for the youthful testosterone which brims in these open-hood vehicles to spill over into public domain when it crosses an-other open-hooded vehicle wearing different colours.That said, taking the general thumb rule into consideration, it wouldbe safe to assume that the ruling party almost always has theupper hand which leads us to the belief that if a de-escalation ofviolence is possible, it is only if the ruling party shows more re-straint. But then again, going back to the root cause of poll-relatedviolence, since it is so much about making your presence felt, apeaceful campaign trail is highly unlikely given the high stakesinvolved in the upcoming elections. The party in power has to keepproving that it is in control and those making a play for power haveto convince the people that they have the will to make seriousinroads into the ruling party strongholds. Violence thus becomesinevitable.So what does the public do. They can make the entire two-monthexercise entertaining by watching the circus as it builds to a cre-scendo which peaks on 10 May, 2004. They will be the safestwhen involved only at the vicarious level as spectators. While it isunfortunate to see the youth check home black and blue everyother day, it is something they signed on for when they decidedwhat they are going to do with their time in the run-up to the polls.What would be really wrong and deplorable would be violencedirected at the lay people. That would be unfortunate. One onlyhopes that the lure of power does not degenerate the people in-volved to that level. That apart, prepare to be scandalised withreports of skirmishes, allegations and mud-smearing. That is afterall what elections are now all about.

Those among us who read ‘The RoadAhead’ a few of years back and con-

trasted the vision that Gates painted in thetome, with the stark reality back home couldonly sigh, “How far behind!” And yet, only afew years down the line and a brand new mil-lennium to boot, we see how significantlythings have changed. Cyber cafes have sud-denly become ubiquitous and cool and theyouth are not just using them to surf and emailbut also to chat and spend endless hours in-teracting, dreaming digital dreams and do-ing, at least in cyberspace, much of the samethings as their counterparts in the West.

Contrast this scenario with those dark ageswhen you and your pals trekked a couple ofmiles with a prized Hendrix LP to a friend outthere in the yonder who owned a gramophone.How bleak things were then. Newspapers tookaeons to arrive, and when they did, theybrought in stale news of distant places. Nowthere is TV and before you can say ChatreMama, Zee News is in your backyard unearth-ing trivia that you never knew existed.

It has indeed been a neck-breaking, hori-zon-blurring ride down the information high-way. Remember that hoary past when youwent up to the terrace to orient your antennaat all possible angles and waited with batedbreath to hear your dad’s voice from the cav-erns of the room below yell out “Bhayo clearcha” - a Eureka moment that was reserved

for the grainy Bangladeshi channel in yourmonochrome idiot box because they aired theVoyager series and the sugary Highway toHeaven. Cable TV seemed a distantdream and Krishi Darshan was theonly prime-time fantasy that many in-ebriated viewers felt within the pur-view of their reluctant biologies.

Let me also take you downmemory lane to that Wednesday fa-vourite the Chitrahaar; and the raf-fle wherein you had to pick the first songor the actor or the movie they aired andyou hit the jackpot. It was a bit like the won-derful permutations and combinations thatthe cricket match-fixers discovered years later.

TV was a communal affair, reflected in asense by the chappals that lined the door of ahouse playing Ramayana on a Sunday morn-ing. TV viewing indeed was a ritual and theantenna was a status symbol. That would ofcourse soon make way for the dish antennathat sucked into its parabolic interiors a wholenew magical world of channels the likes ofwhich were not seen before. One should ofcourse not fail to recollect the age of the videothat was squeezed temporarily in that inter-val between national TV and the cable. One

thing it did was help us discover Rambo inthat most opportune, historically overwhelm-ing moment; the Agitation, which recreated,

at least for some, the predicamentof the celluloid hunk in our ownbackyard. A moment that be-

longed to the GVC and their ilk. Of coursenot to mention the smorgasbord of x-ratedstuff that caused so many to shed their inno-cence in the poorly ventilated, sweat smell-ing pits they called video parlours.

Cable TV, in turn, brought with it a re-mote wielding generation with a millisecondattention span. Suddenly you had forty chan-nels and wonders like the MTV and Euro-pean League soccer that in a stroke killed ourappreciation for the soccer of the maidan. Ca-ble TV, as far as entertainment went, was thefirst great leveller. You watched the same sit-

coms as your obese, popcorn crunching,couch-potato counterpart in the US. Ofcourse the flip side to that was kids stoppedreading and parents suddenly thoughtNintendo improved their child’s IQ.

Cable TV also contributed to that unifor-mity in appearance of our teenage for every-one now looks as if he or she has come out ofa Chinese assembly line that mass-producesVJs or some other of their ilk who have giventhe g-string and the underwear label the sty-listic deference that these items of clothing soacutely needed. Cable TV certainly gave ev-erybody the right to be hip and to cut a longstory short, liberalisation happened and sud-denly Kathmandu was no longer cool.

Fast forward a few years and welcome tothe Internet. At first, down-loading anythingthat had a picture in it was an ordeal and itwas easier to fall back on its Guttenbergcousin. But now, things have improved. Nomatter how big a grudge is carried against theTelecom Department, we must give the Devilits due for opening up the world to us. Theworld around us has indeed gone smaller andnow it seems whatever technological innova-tions, downright profound or just at the gizmolevel, will not take as long as they did in thepast to get here. Napster and other related soft-ware have up-ended music and other forms ofdigitised information resulting in the democ-

statue, the entire area of Namchi,along with Samdruptse will benefit,both in terms of economic growth,fame and recognition.

Earlier, this place was a small,inconspicuous place not very wellknown even to the people of theState. Now, thanks to the statue, theplace is gaining popularity by theday and soon it will become one ofthe most sought-after tourist desti-nations in the entire region. This isyet another feather in the CM’s capand I am sure that more would beadded if he continues to do suchvisionary work in the future as well.

I wish him every success for hispro-Sikkim vision and hope he willlive by it. He has started with theblessings of Guru Rinpoche and Iam sure he will be successful in allhis plans. His other plan, to installthe tallest statue of Adi Kavi BhanuBhakta at Geyzing as a tribute tothis great bastion of Nepali litera-ture will add another dimension tothe tourism sector of the State.

Kudos to the Chief Ministerand his government.John Gurung, 5th Mile, Tadong,Gangtok

THE MIRACLE OF

SAMDUPTSE

First of all, I would like to thankNOW! for publishing my expe-

rience titled “Samduptse; Not onlya hit but a super duper one” in theletters section of the issue dated 14-

20 January, 2004.Secondly, I also thank those in-

dividuals who had selflessly volun-teered to help construct the statue.

And last but not the least, Ithank Mr. Pemba Thondup whodeemed it worth to include my ex-perience in his “Tribute to GuruPadmasambhava” titled, “TheMiracles at Samduptse,” in theNOW! issue of 18-24 February2004, because a small miracle alsohappened in my familyRinzing Lhamu, Burtuk, Gangtok

MISSING NOW!

I am a regular reader of yourweekly but to my utter dismay did

not find NOW! in the newsstands. Iwas told it would be delayed. I donot know the reason for it but what-ever it is, may the NOW! team find asolution to the problem. Good luck.Karma, 5 Bengal Btn

ON GOING DAILY

Dear NOW!

So exciting! We are going tomeet daily, but will also be miss-

ing your weekly shape and face. Itis a necessity for a capital town tohave an informative and authenticDaily and we believe NOW! willstand to fulfil the expectations bycovering the North, East, West andSouth of Sikkim and all the happen-ings and events of the surroundinghills like Kalimpong, Darjeeling andKurseong. Besides news, we expectsome comments, stories, gossip and

turn to pg 7

turn to pg 5

08 March, 2004; NOW! 3

C M Y K

� UPFRONT

POLICE OPENS FIRE TO QUELL SDF-CONGCLASH IN WEST SIKKIM

Unable to control the mob when theface-off took its first violent turn,the SP had to resort to firing blankshots in the air to disperse thecrowd. Things cooled down furtherwith the arrival of Sikkim ArmedPolice and India Reserve Battalionpersonnel. IG [Range], OH Subbaand DIG Range, SD Negi, also

reached the spot and pacified thedisputing parties. FIRs and coun-ter FIRs have been filed from bothsides. In the meantime, two Battal-ions of Sikkim Armed Police havebeen deployed in the area to ensurethat the fight does not escalate.

Speaking to NOW!, Mr. Tsongsaid that the Congress party wouldnot stand such atrocities againstparty supporters and that he had

brought party members here toshow their unity and their supporttowards fellow party workers. Incontrast, the SDF MLA fromJorethang, Mr. Rai had a differenttake on things and blamed the Con-gress for provoking the SDF sup-porters. According to him, theevents of the previous day tookplace when Congress supportersstarted abusing the Law Minister

when they passed his residence.According to Mr. Rai, this was “toomuch” for the people of the areaand ruling party supporters to tol-erate and resulted in the fight.

Whatever may be the case; in-cidents like these can be expectedto occur with more frequency in thecoming two months as Sikkim pre-pares for simultaneous polls sched-uled for 10 May, 2004.

Contd from pg 1

NAMCHI: Dawa Lhamu Sherpa,a 57 year old woman was foundhanging in her house in a village 1km from Damthang Bazaar,Namchi.

According to Sanchaman MayaSubba, who first discovered thebody, she and Dawa Lhamu hadbeen working in the fields nearbysince morning. At around 9.30AM,Dawa Lhamu said that she wouldgo home to collect some corn.When she did not return,Sanchaman Maya went to the house

and found Dawa hanging from abeam in the roof by a scarf.

Speaking to NOW! later, shesaid that she was shocked sinceDawa had appeared perfectly nor-mal in the morning and had not dis-played any signs of contemplatingsuch a drastic action.

The only person at the house atthe time of the incident was Dawa’s28 year old handicapped daughter.

Dawa Lhamu’s case is strangesince no one in her family ever sus-pected her of having any kind ofmental illness or problem.

Speaking to NOW!, her secondson Lakpa Sherpa, informed that

curiously there have been nine sui-cides in the family till date, includ-ing his grandparents.

When contacted, Dr. ILSharma, Psychiatrist, STNM Hos-pital, Gangtok, explained that al-though suicide by itself was nothereditary in nature, depressive ill-ness was.

“Although Dawa Lhamu maynot have shown any external mani-festation of her illness, she musthave been suffering silently,” hesaid.

The funeral of Dawa Lhamu isto be held today. She is survivedby three sons and three daughters.

Tadong cabbies

join SDF, pledge

support for

Gyaltsena NOW REPORT

TADONG: Around 90 drivers fromTadong, 5th and 6th Mile, joinedthe Sikkim Democratic Front in ameeting held here at the IndustrialComplex on Sunday, 7 March.

Rupendra Trikhatri, President,5th and 6th Mile Taxi Drivers As-sociation, Raju Bardeva, VicePresident and General SecretaryKiran Rai, speaking on behalf of thetaxi drivers said that they were join-ing the SDF party because of thepositive feed back they had gotfrom their passengers on the party.They went on to assure that all thetaxi drivers would stay united andwork towards the prosperity of theparty and the drivers.

Welcoming them to the party,KT Gyaltsen, Minister Tourism andarea MLA, said that taxi driversplayed a very important role inspreading the ideology of the partyand they should carry on the goodwork. Saying that the developmentin the tourism sector could begauged by the rise in the numberof taxis, he asked them to be readywhen Nathula opens for trade. Partyflags were distributed to all thedrivers who had joined the party.

MOTHER HANGS SELF, BECOMES TENTHIN THE FAMILY TO COMMIT SUICIDE

PURAN TAMANG

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Dukpa Fort atNampatam,

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4; NOW! ; 08 March, 2004

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POWERPLAY �

Chamling tells supporters to stop talking samashti putra,accept candidates sent by party high command

Sikkim Democratic Front party supporters arriving at the Rangpo Mining Ground for the 12th foundation day of the party observed on 4 March

RANGPO: With elections roundthe corner, all parties, including theruling Sikkim Democratic Front, areseeing hectic lobbying for party tick-ets. From anonymous letters to jointrepresentations, prospective candi-dates are getting their supporters toopt for every medium to bolster theircandidature. An interesting develop-ment noticed of late has been thedemand for tickets to “samashti-putra,” or candidates who are resi-dents of the constituency.

As far as the ruling Sikkim Demo-cratic Front high command is con-cerned, this is one demand that doesnot go down well with it. Speaking atthe 12th foundation day of the SDFobserved here at the Mining Groundon 4 March, the Chief Minister andparty president, Pawan Chamlingmade it clear that such demandswould not necessarily be entertained.

“If you speak of only samashti-putras then even I would dis-

a NOW REPORT

qualify,” he said reminding the peo-ple that he originally hails fromYang-yang which falls in theKhamdong constituency but hasbeen contesting from Damthang.Khamdong, incidentally, is re-served for SCs. It is obviously thereserved seats and their distribution

that makes the demand for localcandidates difficult to grant.

Mr. Chamling was clear in hisdirections to the party. “The partywill decide on good candidates andparty workers should supportthem,” he said.

He also admitted that although

his party has delivered much in thepast ten years in power, a lot moreremains to be accomplished.

While his main focus was onspelling out the achievements of theSDF in the last ten years, Mr.Chamling also directed a salvo atthe Opposition accusing them of

creating “confusion.”Interestingly, he also an-

nounced that his party would re-serve four tickets for the Limbucommunity and one for theTamangs in the upcoming assem-bly elections since seats have notbeen reserved for them yet.

Holi Hai!a NOW REPORT

A myriad of colours filled thestreets of Gangtok even as

winter bid goodbye and the dry andparched earth awaited the arrival ofspring.

Spirits ran high - peopledrenched in bhang with facespainted in pink, red, green and bluewere seen singing and dancing tothe sounds of the dholaks and chil-dren ran amok with pichkaris intheir hands.

The real essence of this festivalof colours was evident all around -

people from all sections of the soci-ety, cutting across religious lineswere seen smearing each other withthe colours of brotherhood and har-mony. And if someone got splashedwith colours accidentally, everythingwas taken in good stride. Bura matmanna, holi hai!

Kalimpong, too, saw amplerevellery and festive mood. Al-though the Marwari communityhere celebrated the festival of col-ours on Saturday, they were asinvolved on Sunday when the lo-cal Biharis painted the town red.

The liveliest place was under-standably “Main Road” whichwas filled with people of all gen-erations, drenched in coloursfrom head to toe.

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Normally, people think that adaily cannot survive in Sikkim be-cause there is no news to cover, butwe believe that NOW! can do it. A“daily paper” doesn’t mean that oneshould be full of “hot” news, but itshould be able to stand with a senseof responsibility for the society - andthat is what NOW! is known for.

NOW, some readers think that anewspaper should be the maximumof information and minimum of com-ment, but I feel that newspapers arethe school masters of the commonpeople because the newspaper is aninstitution developed by the moderncivilisation to present the news of theday, to foster every part of the soci-

�LETTERSContd from pg 2

� DEVELOPMENT

TASHIDING: The ubiquitousrain was missing this year. Exceptfor a light drizzle, the rain-godsstayed away from Tashiding onthe two days [5 and 6 March] ofone of the most important festi-vals of the State - Bhum Chu. Justas the weather was pleasant, sowere the predictions that theBhumsa made.

According to members of theorganising committee, the sacredvase poured out the exact amount

GANGTOK: Women at various decision making po-sitions came together on Friday, 5 March, at the Po-lice Headquarters Conference Hall here to deliberateon issues and concerns facing the women of Sikkim.

Slated to be observed today [8 March], Interna-tional Women’s Day, the state level consultation toformulate strategies for implementing the NationalPolicy for the Empowerment of Women and also toformulate the state policy was pre-poned by three daysdue to time constraints. Recommen-dations emerging from the meetingwould be incorporated in the action-plan for National Policy for the Em-powerment of Women.

The state-level consultation be-gan with the lighting of the lamp byChief Guest and Chairperson, StateCommission for Women [SCW],Manita Pradhan. In her address, shestressed on the fact that women inSikkim were more “empowered”elsewhere in the country. “Socialills like dowry and female infanti-cide are not seen here and womenhave equal rights,” she said.

The meeting was also attendedby Prof. Susheela Kaushik of theNational Commission for Women[NCW] and Prof. DJ Bhowmick ofCentre for Women’s Studies, NorthBengal University.

Prof. Kaushik apprised the gath-ering of the objectives and approachof NCW while Prof. Bhowmick spokeon the formulation of an “action-plan”for National Policy for Women.

The morning session also had R.Namchyo, former Director, Education Department,speak on the nature of education and literacy levelsamong women in Sikkim.

In the post lunch session, Akshay Sachdeva, Com-mandant, Sikkim Armed Police, speaking on violenceagainst women, informed that compared to other states,there was very little crime targeted against women here.Although a few rape and molestation cases were re-ported, these were few and far in between.

“The most common complaint we receive is of

of 21 tings [bowls used to offerwater]. The water was “crystalclear” indicating a good and pros-perous year ahead for the State. Amore detailed prediction will bemade after more detailed consulta-tions between Tashiding monks andofficials of the Ecclesiastical De-partment.

Last year, by contrast, saw thewater fall short by half a cup al-though it was clear. The spate ofaccidents and the communally tensetimes through the past year are seenby many as events foretold by theBhumsa at Tashiding. Hopefully

things will change this year.The sacred ceremony was at-

tended by some 7,000 people fromall over the State and from as far asNepal and Bhutan. Also presentwere a large number of foreign tour-ists. The devout waited patientlythroughout the night for the Mon-astery to open for the public. Morethan seventy monks, led by eight-een head monks, performed theChenreizig Khorwa Leydol amidstchants of scared prayers, which hadstarted at midnight.

The Chenden or the vase open-ing ceremony was held around mid-

night and the contents of the vase checkedaround 3 am on 6 March by the headmonks in the presence of representativesfrom the Ecclesiastical and Land Rev-enue Departments. This was followed bythe Tromwang for the general public.

Three tings of water were taken outand mixed with plain water for distri-bution - one for the royal family, onefor the Government and one forthe public. Three tings of wa-ter from the Rathong Chuwere then poured inside thevase to replace the waterand the Bhumpa sealedtill the next Bhum Chu.

a NOW REPORT

Holy water measures out, Bhum Chu predicts good year ahead

ety, to inform and lead public opin-ion and to furnish that check uponthe government which no constitu-tion has been able to provide.

You know, anyone and everyonecan pass the news, but we expectsomething different from you. Whilenews is important, the interpretationof news is far more important.

Be neutral, be impartial and beauthentic. And, of course different.Once again, congratulations and allthe best.“Trinetra Shapra,”Development Area, Gangtok

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domestic violence and bigamy, but often there is a con-flict between what the law says and what the societysanctions and there is no clear cut way of handling thesesituations,” he said.

He was followed by Dr. Sonam Gyatso, president,SPACE, who spoke on gender issues. In an addresspeppered by historical references and local humour, heexplained how gender disparities are mostly fuelled byfossilized traditions.

According to him, women in Sikkim were alreadyvery “empowered” but there was still a need to raiseawareness levels among people.

“We should realize that in spiteof biological differences, men andwomen have to learn to imbibe theirreal role vis a vis their family andthe society. In Sikkim, when we talkof empowering women, we may infact be barking up the wrong tree,”he concluded.

In the panel discussion on so-cial and economic empowerment ofwomen in Sikkim, Nalini Pradhan,Special Secretary, UD&HD in-formed that over the years there hasbeen a paradigm shift in the ap-proach to women’s issues.

“The crucial change in the de-bate is that we have moved from thewhy’s to the how’s,” she said.

Ms. Pradhan also listed someconcrete measures that we can takefor the benefit of women in the state(see box)

CK Cintury, Special Secretary,Social Welfare Department chairedthe panel discussion and rational-ized some of the points put forward.Summing up the meet, she askedwomen not to deviate from their

natural biological self, but at the same time becomemore aware and work together for the benefit of women,especially those that come from the lower strata of so-ciety and face more prejudice and bias than the urbanwoman who still has her say in most things.

Calling for a second consultative meeting on 16March to formulate the state policy for women, shesaid that Friday’s programme could be considered aspart of the International Women’s Day celebration inthe state.

RECOMMENDATIONS- Central schemes should not

be forced on the state whenthere is no need for them

- States must be consulted inthe formulation of policiesand schemes, keeping his-torical and cultural factors inmind.

- SCFW should review all wel-fare programmes for womento avoid duplication indepartments and bring it un-der one umbrella.

- Flexi-time in work proposedfor women. Her output shouldbe weighed against her time.”

- A separate women & childdevelopment departmentshould be created, instead ofthe present all-encompass-ing Social Welfare Depart-ment.

- Text book revision in schoolsand colleges to incorporatecontributions made bywomen.

a NOW REPORT

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AMITAVA BANERJEE

DARJ-SIKKIM MERGERWill the demand find takerson both sides of Rangpo?

DARJEELING: With most of thepolitical parties of the DarjeelingHills harping on the demand for aseparate homeland - Gorkhaland, acompletely different demand hassurfaced giving birth to a new po-litical party. This time it is the de-mand for the merger of theDarjeeling Hills with Sikkim.

It all began on 7 January 2004,with a section breaking away fromthe Darjeeling District Congress[Hill Zone] and forming the GorkhaRashtriya Congress [GRC]. Thedissident leaders claimed that theState Congress Committee had al-ways been and was still being themain obstacle to the demands of theHill Congress hence the breakawayand the resurfacing of the Sikkim-Darjeeling “Merger” proposal.

“We do not want to stay withWest Bengal and the best alterna-tive is a merger with Sikkim as his-tory shows that Darjeeling origi-nally was a part of Sikkim” says DKBomzan, the GRC president spear-heading the merger option.

“Since our topography, geogra-phy, culture, language andsocioeconomic structure is thesame as Sikkim, the merger wouldmake Sikkim a bigger and a moreviable state,” he adds.

Mr. Bomzan suggests that theSikkim Assembly adopt a Bill ask-ing Darjeeling back from West Ben-gal. “This would have been an antinational statement prior to 1975,when Sikkim was not a part of India,

but is a valid and constitutional de-mand now,” Mr. Bomzan believes,while adding that soon a chapter ofthe GRC would be opened in Sikkimto spearhead the demand.

Meanwhile, the issue has evokedmixed reactions from Sikkim. Mr.Bomzan claims that SikkimRashtriya Morcha led by R. Moktanhas already submitted a memoran-dum to the Sikkim Governor on theselines. On the other hand, the GorkhaApex Committee [GAC] has op-posed it. GAC, a seven-month old,self-professed “apolitical” organiza-tion of Sikkim claims to be workingtowards the upliftment and welfareof the Gorkhas.

“Gorkhaland is the only solutionto the identity and security of theGorkhas residing nationwide.Merger with Sikkim would solve noGorkha problem since Sikkim is al-ready a state and has nothing to dowith the identity of the Gorkhas assuch,” GM Rai, chairman, GAC,said recently in Darjeeling.

However, he was of the opin-ion that a separate state ofGorkhaland could be obtained un-der the leadership of the presentChief Minister of Sikkim, PawanChamling.

“Chamling played a major rolein the inclusion of the Nepali lan-guage in the Indian Constitutionand also the inclusion of Tamangsand Limboos in the ScheduledTribe List. Since the Sikkim Demo-cratic Front is an ally of the rulingNDA at the Centre, he would be theright person to woo the CentralGovernment,” said Mr. Rai.

While Mr. Rai’s relationship withthe SDF and its leader has souredsince his Darjeeling visit, it is clearthat one “Merger” is more than whatSikkim is prepared to handle. Mr.Bomzan however still nourishes thedream that one day Darjeeling wouldmerge with Sikkim.

08 March, 2004; NOW! 7

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ratisation of information. Already,we have discovered the marvels ofthe google and the dogpile, meta-search engines that make availableto us everything from al qaeda to theatomic bomb. Now there seems tobe no pretext for the local loser toblame “lack of opportunities” for ev-erything from unemployment tosheer illiteracy.

Things can only look up fromhere and although the system attimes may tend to suffer from theusual disease of bureaucratic fric-tion, at least all new technologicalinnovations that the informationtechnology showers on us reallydoes work for the under dog. It isall up to us now to decide where allthese opportunities should take usfrom here. For example we are al-ready reaping the benefits of ourneutral accent and our penchant forthings Western when we make ourpresence felt in that most profoundemployment generation scheme that

Contd from pg 2

From napping to Napster

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is sweeping urban India: tele-conferencing, medical transcriptionand all that is relevant under thatnew corporate phenomena calledoutsourcing.

Will we participate in this andthe other revolutions and make ourpositive contribution to it or will westill sit and mop and wallow in self-pity and recrimination that has be-come our jatiya past time? Yourguess is as good as mine.

� NEWSSCAN

NAMCHI: The Health [ParivarKalyan Avam Swasthya] Mela washeld from 19 to 21 February 2004at the Bhaichung Stadium. The re-sponse to the Mela which, focusedon preventive, curative and reha-bilitative health was tremendouswith more than 20,000 people at-tending. Alternative medicines suchas Ayurveda, Homeopathy andAmji were also represented.

In all, 7,595 people were givenfree check-ups including 600 pa-

tients receiving alternative treat-ment. Medicines were providedfree of cost. The total worth ofmedicines procured for the Melaapproximated Rs. 3 lakhs. Othermedical services provided free werelab tests, X-rays, ultrasounds andECG. Cataract operations,lapligation and non-scalpel vasec-tomy operations were also per-formed.

Various allied organisationsparticipating in the Mela providedon the spot hearing aids, wheelchairs, spectacles, walking sticksand low vision aids. Provision for

issue of on spot disability certifi-cates cum cards was also made.Various information, education andcounselling materials were avail-able to all those who visited thevarious public health stalls.

The Health Mela organisersthank the district officials, doctorsand staff of STNM and NamchiDistrict Hospitals, allied depart-ments like Social Welfare, CRC[Guwahati], DDRC [Gangtok],VHAI [Gangtok], RRI [Ayurveda]Tadong, and NGOs of Namchiwhose participation and supportmade the Mela a success.

20,000 make it to Namchi Health Melafrom OUR CORRESPONDENT

Nutritional tips for grassroots workersDEEPAK SHARMA

MANGAN: The Department of Social Welfare in collaboration withthe Food & Nutrition Board, Government of India, organized a two-day Orientation Training Course (OTC) for grassroot level workershere recently.

The training programme, aimed at women and adolescent girls tocreate awareness among them on the need for proper food and nutri-tion, was attended by 32 participants, including Aaganwadi workers.The Master Trainer was Sonam Lhamu, Social Welfare Departmentand the demonstrator, Pushpa Sharma from the Food & Nutrition Board.

The participants were briefed on the importance of proper foodand nutrition especially for the mother and the child. They were alsoimparted with the basic skills to make tasty and nutritious food athome in order to avoid malnutrition. Topics like importance of breastfeeding, deficiency disorders, services of the ICDS and Infant andYoung Child feeding were also discussed.

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8; NOW! ; 08 March, 2004

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Published by Lt. Col. (retd) P. Dorjee and printed at Darpan Publications Pvt. Ltd, Siliguri. Editor: Pema Wangchuk. Executive Editor: Mita ZulcaNow! Near Ayurvedic Clinic, Gairi Gaon, Tadong. East Sikkim. ph: 03592 270949 email: sikkimnow@rediffmail.com

GANGTOK: Bookworms rejoice.After its resounding success lastyear, Spring Book Fair, starts today,8 March.

The three-day affair, to be heldat Community Centre, DevelopmentArea, is organised by SikkimAkademi. The fair will have 25 stallsdisplaying a range of fiction, non-fiction, educational and technicalbooks. A good collection of chil-dren’s literature and rare titles inNepali, Hindi and local languagesare also expected to be available.

“The whole exercise is aimedat inculcating a reading habit in thepeople, increasing readership andcreating a lasting atmosphere ofbook-mindedness,” says Jayshree

Pradhan, Secretary Education andchairperson, Sikkim Akademi.

Sahitya Academy, New Delhi,National Book Trust, India, NirmanPrakashan, Rachana, JanapakshaPrakashan, Oxford UniversityPress, Calcutta, Orient Longman,Jainco, National Library and otherwell-known publishers and book-sellers from West Bengal andSikkim will participate in the fairwith a mix of old and new books.

Government departments ofEducation, Culture, Information &Public Relations and Science &Technology will also be taking partin the exhibition.

Seminars, symposiums andpanel discussions will be held dur-ing the course of the book fair alongwith programmes involving stu-dents and youth.

Interesting contests are also onthe anvil. While the Katha Chitra

contest will have Rudra Poudyal,Additional Director, Education,narrating a story with the contest-ants having to draw pictures basedon it. Rachna Books will have com-petitions based on a questionnairewith the winners walking awaywith books and other prizes.

“We have three stalls exclu-sively for Rachna Books. Last yearwe did good business and this yeartoo we hope to introduce to read-ers a whole new collection ofbooks,” says Raman Shreshta ofRachna.

The Book Fair is on fromMarch 8-10.

RAJDHANIa NOW REPORT

THEFINALONE �

Whip out the reading glassesSPRING BOOK FAIR BEGINS TODAY