1. law, govt and politics
2. law enforcement
3. police

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A C C U R A T E
B A L A N C E D
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C R E D I B L E
VOL 9 No 147 RNI No: SIKENG/2006/18384
GANGTOK, SUNDAY 08 FEBRUARY 2015
EIILM appeals Sikkim
govt to take over varsity
HM Correspondent
Gangtok, Feb 7: Mired in
court cases due to large scale
financial irregularities, promoters of EIILM University
have approached the Sikkim
government requesting it to
take over the university.
Days after the Enforcement
Directorate freezed its bank
accounts worth over Rs. 360
crores, Malvika Foundation
that promotes EIILM has
written to Chief Minister
Pawan Chamling appealing
for "accession" of the university. Started as a state Private University in 2006, the
NEWS BRIEFS
Cable theft
Some unknown miscreant entered a hydro
project site at Chungthang, North Sikkim and
stole away 80 metres of 6
mm 4 core electrical cable
worth Rs. 50,000. A case
of theft has been
registered against
unknown persons at
Chungthang Police
Station and efforts are on
to identify and arrest the
culprits.
Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning and Management has also approached
the High Court with an appeal to make the Sikkim Government take over the university.
Meanwhile, exasperated
students at the university
continue their protest for 45
days. With no sight of relief
coming from neither the university nor the State administration, the fate and career
of around 250 students,
mostly outstation hangs in
balance since their semester
end exam was abruptly called
off in December 2014. The
university has neither a Vice
Chancellor nor a Registrar at
present and the only contact
that students or authorities
is an acting VC, has been
over phone or email. Earlier,
the HRD Department had
mediated in the matter and
received an undertaking
from the acting VC that the
stalled semester exams
would be resumed. This
however did not come
through and the
student protest at the
campus continues.
Now EIILM’s promoters
have approached the State
government to take over the
varsity. RP Sharma, one of
the trustees of Malvika
Foundation and currently the
Acting Vice Chancellor of the
EIILM, wrote to the Chief
Minister on 1 January, 2015
appealing for "accession" of
the university by the Gov-
2 killed in
truck mishap
A driver and handy boy
was killed and one
occupant was seriously
injured when a truck
they were travelling in
met with an accident at
Lower Sanga Dorjee,
West Sikkim early hours
of Friday.
The truck fell off the
road into the Rangit river
killing driver Bhim Bdr.
Rai, and handy boy
Suman Rai on the spot.
The injured occupant
was evacuated to
Gyalshing District
Hospital for medical
attention. The dead
bodies have been
handed over to its legal
guardian after post
mortem examination.
Suicide
A 25-yr-old youth
committed suicide by
hanging himself at his
residence at Ralap, East
Sikkim at around Friday
afternoon. The body was
discovered by the brother
of the deceased who
informed the police.
the Rai Foundation established by Vinay Rai. The university is developed on an
8.7 acre campus at Malbasey,
Budang under Soreng SubDivision of West District.
EIILM has also filed a writ
petition in the High Court of
Sikkim seeking court directions to the State Government to take over the university. The winter bench of the
High Court has reportedly
issued notices to the parties
and directed that the matter
be listed for 17 February.
When contacted, the Human Resource Development
Department Director for
Higher Education, Jitendra
Raje, said that the matter was
pending before the Court and
that the State government is
consulting with a panel of
Advocates and will filed
para-wise reply of the writ
petition.
EIILM University, it may
be recalled, is facing the
charge of fraudulent act by
fabricating records/ documents, committing instances
of misrepresentation and
forgery, having cheated lakhs of students and their socalled coordinators running
their various off-campus institutions and study centres
all over the country. Sikkim
Police registered a case
against EIILM University in
2012 and has already
submitted chargesheets
in connection with fake certificate scandal.
HM Correspondent
Kurseong, Feb 7: Police arrested Anup Pradhan (45) of
Paanch Ghar, Ambootia tea
estate under Kurseong sub
division area on charges of
attempt to murder, causing
grievous hurt by dangerous
weapons and arms act Friday
night. Pradhan was Saturday
produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Court,
Kurseong under section 326/
307 IPC, RW/ 25 (1B) (a) (b)/
27 Arms Act and later sent to
four days police remand.
Friday night at around
9pm the accused Anup
Pradhan had allegedly
stopped three youths of the
same village who were on
their way. Soon there was an
argument between them and
during the fracas Anup had
fired two rounds from his revolver, in which, one from the
three Prashant Pradhan (22),
was injured by a bullet that
pierced through his left thigh.
Later, Prashant was admitted
at the Kurseong sub divi-
sional hospital. Presently his
condition is said to be stable
and out of danger. The three
were reportedly working in
shopping malls in Siliguri.
Kurseong SDPO, Abhijit
Singh Kadian said the accused has alleged that the
three persons had tried to
attack him. He had fired twice
from his revolver. Out of the
two bullets that were fired
that night one has been recovered by the Kurseong
Police.
Further investigation is
going on the history of the
revolver which has not been
found so far and from where
it had been bought as well
as about the whole incident.
Police sources said that
the accused Anup Pradhan
owns and runs a MR Shop
(ration) in Ambootia tea estate and during investigation
a lot of PDS commodities was
found stored there. Now the
police officials with the help
of Food & Supply officials
are investigating whether the
stock stored is more than allotted or any stock has been
stored illegally.
STDC to manage Kailash
Mansarovar luxury Yatra
Governor plants Kiwi at Raj Bhawan complex
Drug arrest
One Bappi Biswas, of
Jorethang, South Sikkim
has been arrested by
Jorethang Police for
selling contraband
substances to the local
youths. A huge cache of
contraband substances
was also recovered from
his possession. A case
has been registered
against the accused.
ernment of Sikkim. The fivepage letter details that the
university's nine bank accounts
operated from within and
outside Sikkim and having
deposits to the tune of Rs.
1.52 crores, were attached by
the Enforcement Directorate
on 18 October 2014 along
with all the acquired immovable properties outside Sikkim. The letter goes on to inform that the university suspended operations
on 24 November, 2014 because it was facing monetary
hardships, following which
the students began their protest.
In the plea addressed to
the Chief Minister, EIILM
contends that "...the arbitrary action under the garb
of powers of investigation
by the police, the university
has suffered an irreparable
harm not only in terms of finances but also in terms of
credibility. The reputation of
the university has been torn
to shreds and has resulted
in adverse publicity. Sponsoring body is finding it very
difficult to make appointments to the post of Vice
Chancellor and Registrar as
none is interested in getting
embroiled in unnecessary
controversy."
Malvika Foundation, Delhi-Mathura Road, is the
sponsoring body of the EIILM university which is also
one of the sister concerns of
Man arrested for
attempt to murder
HM Report
Gangtok, Feb 7: Sikkim Governor Shrinivas Patil undertook a special plantation
drive of Kiwi plant at the Raj
Bhawan complex here today.
The first lady, state agriculture & horticulture minister
Somnath Poudyal and State
government officials also attended the event.
Seized
drugs destroyed
HM Report
Gangtok, Feb 7: Contraband
drugs worth around Rs. 1
Lakh seized under 61 cases
of East district was destroyed by the Prosecution
branch of Sikkim Police at
District Court, Sichey here
today. The contraband substances were seized under
the Sikkim Anti Drugs Act
(SADA), 2006 in 61 criminal
cases from 2012-14.
The contraband drugs
burnt included 2935 Nitro-
sun-10 tablets, 34,625 of
Spasmo Proxyvon capsules,
7 bottles of Recodex, 481
bottles of Eskuf, 39 bottles
of Cofband, 39 bottles of RCuf, 46 bottles of Pupicuf, 24
bottles of Rexcon and one
small pouch of Marijuana.
The drugs were burnt under
the supervision of Tshering
Yangzom Bhutia, Court Inspector/Prosecutor, East in
the presence of SI. Bal Bahadur Chettri, Prosecution, East
and two local residents as
independent eyewitnesses.
Bengal ponzi firm's
MD arrested
Kolkata, Feb 7 (IANS): The
managing director of URO
Group - a West Bengalbased deposit-taking company - has been arrested on
charges of cheating and
fraud, police said Saturday.
"Several warrants were
pending against Biswapriya
Giri and he was absconding
for some time. A fresh complaint by a depositor was recently filed and we arrested
him Friday night on charges
of cheating, fraud and other
charges," Assistant Deputy
Commissioner of Police
(Bidhannagar) Debashis
Dhar said. Following the unearthing of the multi crore
rupee Saradha scam, police
had raided the offices of the
company which mainly operated in North 24 Parganas
and Nadia districts.
URO group features in
the list of 73 ponzi firms in
West Bengal which the ministry of corporate affairs had
published in 2013.
The plantation has been
undertaken under ICAR flagship program on temperate
fruits and under the technical guidance of ICAR RC for
NEH Region, Sikkim Centre.
The Governor, while interacting with the officers
suggested that Kiwi plantation can be taken as a
model plantation by the
Department and can be
turned in to a training
ground for the farmers. He
stressed on the need to create awareness amongst the
farmers about the benefits
of the fruit and encourage
them to undertake Kiwi plantation.
Kiwi plantation was introduced in West Sikkim in
1995 and more than 50 farmers are engaged in commercial Kiwi plantation in
Rinchenpong and Timburbong area in the district.
The fruit is sold at around
Rs. 150-200 per Kg in the
local market. Horticulture
department director PT
Bhutia said Kiwi plantation
will be introduced in East
district this year.
Later during the day, the
Governor released a compendium of activities under-
taken by the students from
Sikkim during their trip to
Pune under the ‘Students
Exchange Program’ as part
of Connecting Champions
Programme initiated by 24
Hours Inspired recently. A
group of 48 students comprising 26 girls and 22 boys
selected from 13 different
schools across 4 districts
of the state under the guidance the Governor had an
opportunity to explore, expose, learn and share their
culture with the students
and the people of Pune,
Maharashtra during their 5
day long trip from January
11 to 22.
The Governor while addressing the gathering congratulated the organizers
for successfully completing the programme stating
that the students will get an
opportunity to not only see
new things but it will also
help them to broaden their
career choices. Dewaker
Basnett, the Chief Learning
Officer of 24Hours Inspired
also shared his experience
about the exchange programme during the function
held at Ashirwad Bhawan
at the Raj Bhawan premise.
HM Correspondent
Gangtok, Feb 7: With India
and China having exchanged notes on modalities
for opening Nathula as a second route for pilgrims undertaking the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra, the state nodal department, Tourism & Civil
Aviation Department, has
handed over the responsibilities for the entire management and coordination with
Ministry of External Affairs
for pilgrims to Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation (STDC). The Yatra
through Sikkim is scheduled
to begin from June. This is
the first luxury route to Kailash Mansarovar from India
and pilgrims, after crossing
over from Nathula, will travel
on to Shigatse, the
second largest city in Tibet, from where they will take
the Kailash-Mansarovar
highway. Thus far, from India, the only route to Kailash
involved an arduous and
dangerous trek through Uttarakhand.
The only vehicular travel
option was via Nepal.
The new motorable route
through Nathula is scheduled to accommodate around
250 pilgrims this season.
They will proceed in batches of 50 each. These 250 are
in addition to the usual quota of 900 pilgrims allowed
from Uttarakhand.
Although the Chinese
government has assured all
facilities for the travelling pilgrims, the pilgrimage is not
for the fainthearted and infrastructure along the highway in Tibetan Autonomous
Region is
rudimentary at best.
Tourism Special Secretary
Sarala Rai, who undertook
the Yatra via Kathmandu
and onwards to Lhasa and
Kailash Mansarovar in 2011,
attests that travel even in luxury vehicles is difficult.
Medical facilities are few
and far between along the
route and sanitation is another area of concern along
the route in TAR, she informs. Getting porters or other resources during pilgrimage is also
difficult, it is informed.
Sikkim does not have
enough experienced porters
to escort pilgrims to Kailash
Mansarovar. The parikrama
at Kailash-Mansarovar also
comes with its own set of
challenges given the difficult
terrain and extreme weather.
The parikrama reportedly
take three days and two
nights, with the second
day involving a difficult
traverse of the Dolma La. Pilgrims have the option of taking yaks or ponies on this
leg, but these come at a high
premium. This will be the first
season of the travel, and with
some coordination and proactive problem-solving, Sikkim could benefit from it in
more respects than just handling the pilgrims while they
are in Sikkim.
3 bridges miss multiple deadlines, ffinger
inger on dept
HM Report
Gangtok, Feb 7: Inordinate
delay by the Roads and
Buildings department in
completion of three bridges
along the Pakyong-Gangtok
road under Assam-Lingzay,
Pasetang Village has attracted criticism from the residents of the area. Construction of three steel bridges at
Tharey, Salsaley and Bala
rivers along the PakyongGangtok road are yet to be
completed despite missing
many deadlines.
Sundar Rai, a local said the
construction on the bridges is
going on at snail’s pace and
the contractor Kishor Rai has
already missed two deadlines
for the completion of the
project. “The work orders for
the construction of the bridg-
es along the three rivers were
issued in March 2011 and the
work was scheduled to be
completed within 10 months.
The deadline was further extended till the last week of January 2015. But the constructions of the bridges are yet to
be completed even after missing the latest deadline. Only
the base of the bridges has
been constructed at Tharey
and Bala rivers whereas work
at the Salsaley River hasn’t
even started.” Rai informed.
The total work value of
the three bridges comes to
about Rs. 3.23 Crores and Rs.
48.53 Lakhs mobilization
fund has already been re-
leased by the department Rai
informed, adding that despite repeatedly informing
the concerned officials
about the delay in the work,
no concrete action was taken by the department. He further informed that he has
submitted a written complaint to the Chief Secretary
along with a copy to Secretary PWD, DC and Chief Engineer regarding the matter.
Rai also lamented that due
to the carelessness of the
contractor the road along the
construction site was
blocked for the past one
week due to landslide which
was caused by the construction work, adding that the
people of the area who are
mostly dairy farmers and use
the road on daily basis to
reach Ranipool to sell their
products were suffering immensely due to the blockade.
When contacted, Krishna
Rai, the contractor of the
project lamented that the delay in the work was caused
because of change in the
department structure and it
may take some time before
the work is completed.
CMYK
CMYK
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