Proud to be a Sikkimese: Sikkim Travel, Culture & Local Heritage

Pinak Priya Bhattacharya & Deep Gazmer,TNN SILIGURI/DARJEELING: Her last journey had to be cut short as GJM did not allow the body of Dhanmaya Ghisingh, wife of GNLF president Subash Ghisingh, to be taken to her ancestral home in Ghoom. Sources said she will be cremated in Siliguri on Sunday. Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leaders, who came to Mallaguri in Siliguri after Dhanmaya's death on Saturday morning, had decided to take her body to Ghoom and then cremate her in Darjeeling. But as soon as that news spread, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders declared that they would not allow GNLF to take Dhanmaya's body to Darjeeling under any circumstances. GJM supporters also started picketing along Hill Cart Road and NH-31B to prevent GNLF leaders from entering the Hills with Dhanmaya's body. To avoid the blockade, the GNLF convoy, accompanied by police, took Rohini Road to reach Darjeeling and Ghisingh was not present in that convoy. But they were stopped by ...

New Delhi: Following the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation, the Sikkim government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court for a direction to the Centre and the West Bengal government to ensure free movement of traffic on National Highway No. 31A to and from Sikkim. A vacation bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice G.S. Singhvi decided to hear the petition on Thursday on a mention made by counsel for the State A. Mariarputham about the filing of an application. The Bench, after hearing senior counsel P.H. Parekh, said it would take up another application filed by O.P. Bhandari seeking the same relief. The apex court had already issued notice on a writ petition from Mr. Bhandari for a direction to the parties concerned to take appropriate action during bandhs and strikes called by political parties and social organizations. The present applications are filed in the same writ petition. The applicants said on account of frequent bandhs called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the last few da...

Gangtok: A meeting was held at Mintokgang Monday morning under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Dr. Pawan Chamling, to review the stock position of essential commodities in the State and devise ways and means to replenish the depleted stock of various items resulting from the ongoing indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) in Darjeeling Hills. The meeting was attended by the Chief Secretary, Mr. N.D.Chingapa, Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Finance Secretary, Home Secretary, Development Commissioner, Food Secretary, Managing Director, STCS, Principal Secretary, and Additional Secretary to the Chief Minister.  In the meeting, concerned officers apprised the Chief Minister about the State’s storage capacity of Motor Spirit and High-Speed Diesel which are 255 KL and 875 KL respectively, enough to last only two days, 780 KL of Kerosene Oil to last only for 3 days and 10,700 ...

DARJEELING, June 22: The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) relaxed its indefinite bandh in the Darjeeling hills for 60 hours beginning 6 pm today. The 60-hour breather, from 6 pm today till 6 am on Wednesday (June 25), was decided at the central committee meeting at the “request from different quarters including ministers and MPs and also considering the overall situation.” Talking to reporters here today, Bimal Gurung, the president of GJMM said that the bandh has been relaxed after persistent requests from the Union Ministers as well as because of several students, who have been stranded in hostels across the Darjeeling Hills even after the start of their summer vacation. He further announced that all the schools, colleges, and tea gardens, which were running despite the strike, would now be totally closed fr...

GANGTOK/RANGPO, June 20: Sikkim remained cut off from the rest of the country for the fifth consecutive day today due to the ongoing blockade on National Highway 31-A called by the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) to press for its demand for a separate Gorkhaland demand. Except for ambulances, press, vehicles carrying students, and vehicles carrying LPG cylinders, no other vehicles are permitted to ply from Rangpo, West Bengal side. The State may not be affected by the shortage of LPG as more than 15 trucks carrying LPG cylinders entered in two days from Rangpo Checkpost. Yesterday, an SNT tanker was not allowed to pass as the Morcha picketers slept on the Highway. Meanwhile, a huge rally was organized today at Rangpo, West Bengal side where more than 500 youth and Nari Morcha members shouted slogans for the fulfillment ...

20 Jun 2008, 0131 hrs IST, Anand Soondas ,TNN When the first batch of Indian Nepalese, or Gorkhas as they like to be called, settled in what is now Darjeeling, there was nobody to record it for history. But Darjeeling already had a resident population when the British, after a ravaging war with the fierce warriors, brought them down with guile to annex the hill tracts in 1814. That was almost 200 years ago. A decade after that General Lloyd and J W Grant of the East India Company began the first British settlements in Darjeeling, finding it favourable both as a getaway and sanatorium. The region was formally adopted by the British in 1837 and a road from Pankhabari to Ghoom, and then up to Darjeeling, leaped up almost immediately as a hotel was established in Kurseong for European travellers. By 1866, the Darjeeling district as we know it today was complete. It's surprising, therefore, that CPM state secretariat member and West Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakra...

Gangtok: A key highway NH 31-A, which is a lifeline to Sikkim, was blocked and normal life in the Darjeeling Hills was paralyzed on Tuesday, day two of the indefinite shutdown called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) fighting for a separate state of Gorkhaland. There were no reports of any untoward incident, but private and public vehicles did not ply and offices remained closed in the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong, and Kalimpong, as the latest phase of the GJM’s indefinite shutdown stretched into Tuesday. The streets were deserted, with only police and army vehicles moving around as GJM activists assembled at various points. Kalimpong Additional Superintendent of Police K.V. Dorji said GJM activists put up a blockade on National Highway 31A, connecting Sikkim with the outside world, at the Bengal-Sikkim border of Rongpo. “We are sending reinforcements to remove the blo...

KARMA SAMTEN YANGZOM GANGTOK, June 17: The tiny, landlocked Himalayan State of Sikkim has become a victim of neighbourhood politics it has little to do with. The unrest in the neighbouring Darjeeling Hills, punctuated with frequent and unpredictable bandh calls have left Sikkim not only completely cut off from the rest of the country but with a huge dent in its exchequer. Sikkim is losing a staggering Rs 6 crore a day whenever the Darjeeling hills shut down and the National Highway 31A, the vital road link connecting Sikkim with West Bengal, is subjected to closure by the agitators. About 60 per cent of the National Highway 31A connecting Sikkim runs through the Darjeeling District in West Bengal. This figure is based on a survey conducted by the State Department of Economics, Sta...