Dorjee: Still waiting

Darjeeling, Oct 15: Kushang Dorjee has scaled Mt Everest not once, not twice, but five times. However, getting the government to gift him a plot of land is proving to be too big a mountain for him to climb.

He has been at it for seven years.

Dorjee is the first man in the world to climb the Everest from all the three sides —the Khanshung Face and North Ridge (from Tibet) and the South Ridge (from Nepal) — in the course of five successful attempts.

While Dorjee scaled Everest from the South Ridge in 1993 and 1998, he sumitted the highest peak in the world from the North Ridge in 1996 and 2003. His sole successful attempt from the Khanshung Face came in 1999.

“After I climbed the peak in 1999, I approached the government for a plot of land. Over the years, I have met every one from the chief minister to the sports minister but it is all taking a bit too long,” said Dorjee, an instructor at the HMI.

“When the government could not find any land for me they told me to identity a plot which they said would be sanctioned in my name. I identified a plot below the Circuit House here, but the Public Works Department, which owns the land, did not give me a no-objection certificate. I have now identified a plot near the district magistrate’s office and I hope I will get a clearance this time around,” he said.

The HMI has done its bit by recommending the matter to the government, but this too has not helped. “Col H.S. Chauhan and Col Vijay Singh (former principals of HMI) had recommended my name. But over the past couple of years, I have been personally pursuing the matter with the government,” said Dorjee, who won the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2003.

Col J.S. Dhillon, the present principal of the HMI, said he was not aware of the details of Dorjee’s demand. “There is also no written government rule that says every Everester has to be given land. It entirely depends on the availability of land,” Dhillon added.

It has been something of a precedent, however, for every Everester from the town to be allotted a plot of land here.