TOY TRAIN WORKSHOP MAY BE
SHIFTED FROM TINDHARIA TO SILIGURI
Will the workshop of the World Heritage, Darjeeling Himalayan
Railway, commonly known as the toy train, be transferred from
Tindharia to North 
Junction
in Siliguri? That is the million dollar question that's doing
the rounds here. Though authorities have dismissed any such plan,
but indications are that it may be transferred. A document revealed
that the North East Frontier Railway will soon place tenders for
construction of a workshop and office building for the toy train
at North Junction. Railway authorities, however, denied such a
plan. "we will transfer the loco-shed of the toy train to
North Junction from its present location at New Jalpaiguri,"
Mr SN Singh, additional divisional reailway manager, NJP, said.
Mr Singh said the plan was still at a "nascent stage and
no concrete steps have been taken yet". According to Mr Singh,
the conversion of the of the meter gauge route between NJP and
North Junction into broad gauge had necessitated the transfer.
The narrow gauge tracks of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway connot
cut across the relatively higher rails of the broad gauge as will
be required in certain spots between NJP and North Junction in
Siliguri, he said.
The "proposed" move would bring the starting point of
the toy train from NJP to North Junction is significant in itself.
However, if the workshop at Tindharia - instituted exclusively
for the DHR along with its launch in 1881 - is to be brought to
Siliguri, major protests can be expected from the Hills. A draft
tender notice by Mr SC Rajak, deputy chief engineer, NF Railway,
New Jalpaiguri, is more revealing. There are two works included
in the notice, the first of which is relevant. Tender number 14/GC/CON/NJP
of 2002-2003 is for "construction of NG (narrow gauge) office
building and workshops including two shed over pitline in connection
with shifting of narrow gauge from New Jalpaiguri to Siliguri
Junction". The approximate cost of work is Rs 25,76,989.
Asked about this tender notice, Mr Singh denied its existence.
He, however, conceded a workshop will come up in the North Junction
at Siliguri, "but it would handle the maintenance of the
diesel locos". Incidentally, a full-fledged diesel loco-shed
is already in existence in North Junction at Siliguri since a
long time. Mr Singh also said that an office would come up (presently
there is no separate office for Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in
NJP) at North Junction which would be manned by a supervisor and
store-keeper. He said there were no plans to shift the assistant
mechanical engineer's office from Tindharia to North Junction.
WBSEB TUNNEL FACES
LOCAL HURDLE
A team from the West Bengal State Electricity Board met the DGHC
councillor of Rimbick Lodhoma over the proposed tunnel connecting
the Lodhama-Mungmoong Khola to Fore Bay Reservoir. The resident
so Rammam and Lodhoma are opposing the construction of the 4.75
km tunnel, which they say will divert all the water from the Lodhoma
river. The river is the area's lifeline and generates electricity
enough for the plains, but none for the Darjeeling Hills. The
WBSEB, finding the water in Rammam insufficient for generating
electricity, had decided to channelise the Lodhoma. Residents
of the area now fear that this will destroy nearly 50,000 acres
of agricultural land because of lack of water for irrigation.
The Rammam Hydel Project was sanctioned in 1977 and its first
unit started work in September 1995. But, most villages around
the hydel project are yet to be lighted up, while Rammam supplies
electricity to several parts of North Bengal and Sikkim. Electricity
supplied from the Darjeeling Hills has not been enough to even
light up Darjeeling town with more than frequent power cuts sometimes
ranging for the whole day and whole night.
Most of the 500 people who lost their lands because of the project
haven't been given the compensation and jobs as promised to them,
sad a resident Zubin Waiba. The disgruntled villagers, as a result,
formed a Rimbick Lodhoma Janakalyan Manch and launched a series
of protests over the issue. Things took a violent turn when they
damaged some WBSEB property and stalled the drilling work at the
sites on 4 July. The DGHC Councillor of Rimbick-Lodhoma, SK Lama
told reporters today that he had asked the WBSEB team to accede
to the people's demand. If the government had taken positive measures
to compensate the 500 people who lost their lands while constructing
the project then this day would have never been dawned.
UNEXPECTED PHONE BILLS
AT LARGE IN DARJEELING FROM SILIGURI
It is easier to pay fines than try and settle discrepancies
in telephone bills, residents of Darjeeling will tell you. Telephone
bills here come with myriad defects. Little wonder that people
fly off the handle at the mention of one. Till now, the biggest
problem was bills reaching very late, often after the due date
has passed. The joke around here is that the telephone department
found a way to rake in extra revenue, and who easier to dupe than
the easy going hill resident? But when people started getting
billed for trunk calls they never booked, matters came to a head.
What's more, Kalimpong telephone bills began landing up in Darjeeling.
A Tamang woman, for instance, received a telephone bill with a
mammoth trunk call charge whereas she had not booked a single
such call. She verified it with the accounts officer at Darjeeling,
who found no entries against her number in the trunk call register.
She was asked to write to the accounts officer at Siliguri, since
all billing discrepancies are sorted out there. She had to send
the complaint through registered mail with a/d, which doesn't
come cheap. She did receive a corrected bill minus the trunk call
charges, but only after a long wait. The story doesn't end here.
The next bill again came with trunk call charges she hadn't made.
"The irony of the whole thing is that after all the harassment
and the rigmarole, the next telephone bill again contained a few
fictitious trunk calls," said the lady. Such cases are said
to be frequent in the Darjeeling Hills. the officials aren't very
forthcoming on what causes such errors-maybe intended errors.
A telephone exchange employee, requesting anonymity, however said
that the department had carried out an investigation into it and
found that similar phone numbers existed in Kalimpong and Darjeeling.
"All billing is done from Siliguri. It is thus their mistake.
They are sending unmarked bills with only the telephone numbers
and no mention of the locality, which is why Darjeeling subscribers
get Kalimpong bills and vice versa," the official said. It
means that two bills for a single connection - really a good way
to earn some extra pocket; these people at Siliguri who are handling
the bills must have become rich people by now on the cost of the
innocent Hill people.
Another major problem is the non-receipt of bills. Nearly 30 percent
of the sbscribers have not received bill for years together, some
of them since they received their connection. "If we receive
bills in time, it saves us a lot of harassment. But, we don't
get the bills on time and on top of that have to pay fines too,"
said Arjun Sharma, a businessman. The Darjeeling telephone department
employees blame it on Siliguri.
Though the Darjeeling telephone department had an accounts section,
it does not have the power to settle any billing discrepancies.
All the powers is vested in Siliguri. Its really weird to ponder
that is Darjeeling really the district's head or is it Siliguri?
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News Service and Allied sources
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