Residents of Dalgaon tea estate recalls Bogtui-like carnage

In one of the most horrific massacres in north Bengal, 19 persons were killed and burnt at the home of a Citu leader on November 6, 2003

[In Pic :The Dalgaon tea estate near Birpara of Alipurduar district, the site of the 2003 carnage where 19 persons were murdered.File Picture]

Writes : Avijit Sinha

The carnage at Bogtui village in Birbhum district, where eight persons were murdered on Monday, made residents of the Dooars tea belt recall a similar incident of 2003 at Dalgaon tea estate near Birpara of Alipurduar district.

Seen as one of the most horrific massacres in north Bengal, 19 persons were killed and burnt at the home of a Left-backed trade union leader on November 6, 2003.

A group of workers of the garden attacked the house of Citu leader Tarakeswar Lohar who was holding a meeting. The workers,  furious with Lohar and his henchmen for their highhandedness, resorted to the attack when they learnt the trade union leader wanted to induct three “outsiders” in clerical posts of the garden, instead of local educated youths.

They barged into the house with sharp weapons and indiscriminately attacked those sitting inside. Lohar and a few others managed to escape but 19 people, including two women, died. The house was torched and what remained were charred remains of the bodies.

“The thought of it still sends a chill down our spine,” recalled Parameswar Mahali, a former worker of the garden. “We rushed to see the house in flames. There were bloodstains everywhere and charred bodies on the ground.”

Lohar did manage to escape from the spot and later died a natural death .

In due course, it was found that the attack was retaliatory, similar to the Bogtui incident. But here, unlike in Bogtui, where the massacre seems to be a sequel of Trinamul leader Bhadu Sheikh’s murder on Monday, Dalgaon residents were fed up with Lohar and his aides.

However, Debaprasad Roy, a veteran Congressman from Jalpaiguri, pointed out that while the government in Bengal had changed from the Left to Trinamul, the culture of violence had not.

“There is information that the incident in Bogtui happened because of a dispute between the two groups of Trinamul workers who were into illegal sand mining and some other activities and wanted to gain control over the area,” said Roy.

[source : Thr Telegraph]

Hill solution, not GTA poll, says Bimal GurungOn Tuesday, Mamata had again spoken of her wish to hold the elections

Writes : Vivek Chhetri

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung on Thursday wrote to chief minister Mamata Banerjee requesting her not to hold the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) elections but work out a “permanent political solution” for the hills.

“Today we wrote a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee requesting her to work out a permanent political solution instead of holding GTA elections…. Holding elections would go against the democratic spirit as the people of the hills have rejected the GTA,” Gurung, who is an ally of Trinamul, said in Kalimpong.

On Tuesday, Mamata had again spoken of her wish to hold the GTA polls. “...Now Darjeeling is peaceful, I am so happy. Darjeeling started the election process, I am so happy. Next, we will go for GTA election also but before that I will sit will all... and try and adjust with so many parties. We want to see that Darjeeling smiles,” she had said.

A senior leader of Morcha, Lopsang Yolmo, who was the chairman of the GTA Sabha, said his understanding of permanent political solution was the state of Gorkhaland.

Although the BJP government promised a “permanent political solution” in its 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto and Mamata while campaigning for the Assembly election in 2021 had said in a rally that the BJP-led Centre would never work it out and only the state government would, the exact contours of the "PPS" has neither be defined by the BJP nor Trinamul.

Gurung’s Morcha is now pressing on this point. Yolmo said the Morcha would organise a seminar in Kalimpong on April 2, to discuss the PPS .

Earlier, Roshan Giri, general secretary of the Morcha had talked about a provision under Article 244 (A) of the Constitution. This Article was inserted in the Constitution in 1969 for the formation “of an autonomous state comprising certain tribal areas in Assam” with provision for creating local legislature or council of ministers or both.Gurung’s party had rejected the GTA when they started the Gorkhaland agitation in 2017. In the hills, the BJP and GNLF are also opposed to it. The GNLF even filed a case against the hill body in Calcutta High Court. However, new hill parties — Hamro Party and the BGPM — are in favour of the GTA elections.

source : @Telegraph