Articles by Vivek Chhetri

Health

Senior citizen from Calcutta dies at Sandakphu, experts flag tourist safety concerns

Anandita Ganguly, a 72-year-old tourist from Jadavpur in Calcutta, died in Sandakphu on Monday, soon after reaching the highest point in Bengal by a Land Rover. Anandita, along with her younger sister Ajinta Banerjee, also a senior citizen, had reached Sandakphu around 1.30pm on Monday. “We were told that she started feeling uneasy within 10 minutes of reaching Sandakphu and was rushed down. However, she was declared brought-dead at the Sukhiapokhri block hospital,” said Rajesh Chowhan, the deputy chairman of the GTA Sabha. Sources said that the sisters from Calcutta had stayed at Lepchajagat for two days, about 20km from Darjeeling, before heading for Tumling on Sunday. While Sandakphu, the highest point in Bengal, is situated at 11,930 feet, Tumling is located at an altitude of 9,744 feet. “We have information that the siblings were told by the locals not to carry on with the journey, but they were confident of completing the trip,” said Chandan Pradhan, the president of the Land Rover Owners’ Welfare Association. Praween Prakash, the Darjeeling superintendent of police, said the cause of the Calcutta tourist’s death in Sandakphu would be clear after the post-mortem. Last year, three tourists died on their way to Sandakphu. Experts have been repeatedly warning for years of the need to be vigilant before travelling to Sandakphu, especially for tourists from the plains. Questions on the need to set up appropriate medical infrastructure and conduct proper medical examinations at Maneybhanjyan, the starting point for the Sandakphu travel, had often been raised in the past. The Darjeeling district administration and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration had held meetings and issued media statements on setting up stricter regulations on trekkers and those travelling to Sandakphu on vehicles. “The initiative has been confined only to media statements,” said a resident. Asked, a GTA official could not provide a straightforward explanation for the lack of initiatives to filter tourists going up to Sandakphu. “There are a lot of departments like the forest, health and the GTA. This could be the reason for the delay in implementing the initiative fully,” said the official.

Politics

Ajoy Edwards threat to exit GTA Sabha: Hill body a failure, says IGJF leader

The appointment of an interlocutor for the Darjeeling region is stirring up politics during the winter in the hills, with members of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF) threatening to resign from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). The latest trigger seems to be Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday opposing the functioning of the interlocutor’s office. This is the second time that Mamata has written to Modi against the appointment of interlocutor Pankaj Kumar Mishra, a retired IPS officer, last month. Mamata said in the letter that the Darjeeling region was governed by the “Gorkha Territorial Administration Act 2011”, designed to ensure self-governance in the hills. Ajoy Edwards, the chief convener of the IGJF and an elected member of the GTA Sabha, on Tuesday wrote to Mamata that her letter to Modi “presents an image of a stable and functional administrative structure in the hills”. “The GTA is not functional. It is not autonomous. It is a failed institution, just like the DGHC before it. The 2021 GTA Agreement has never been implemented in letter or spirit. Essential laws, rules and procedures required for transparency and accountability have not been framed in thirteen years. This was not mere bureaucratic delay. It was a deliberate political design to keep GTA weak, confused and easily controlled,” read Edwards's letter. He said that although the Act stipulated that the Sabha should meet once every three months, it had been convened only thrice in the past three years. “Meanwhile corruption operates openly. GTA and Municipality properties are being distributed for thirty-year periods without Sabh meetings, without proper records and without any consultation with elected representatives,” Edwards said in the letter. He said, given the alleged circumstances in the GTA, his party members were contemplating mass resignation. “My party colleagues and I, who constitute the main opposition in the GTA, are now seriously considering mass resignation. We cannot lend legitimacy to a body that is being run like a personal fiefdom and not like a statutory institution created by an Act of the Legislature,” Edwards's letter read. Of 45 elected members at the GTA Sabha, four belong to the IGJF. Edwards went on: “However, the failure of the GTA is now so total and the corruption so deep that even a small possibility of sincerity from the Centre gives our people a sliver of hope.” He added that the "permanent political aspiration" had always been separation from Bengal.