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| Darjeeling town looks like a Christmas card after the snowfall on January 23. A Telegraph picture |
The Telegraph brings you a few glimpses of the year that was. The higher reaches had a snowy start to the year, which had the Dalai Lama winning over the plains and Sikkim, with his spiritual discourse sprinkled with humorous anecdotes. But everything wasn?t that rosy with a Bailey bridge collapsing and a 16-year-old being killed in a clash. Here are some of the important incidents that marked the year.
Jan. 9: Sandakhphu, 38 km from Darjeeling, and its adjoining areas experience the first snowfall of the year
Jan. 19: After 45 minutes of snowfall the previous night, higher reaches of Darjeeling like Tiger Hill and Jalapahar are covered in snow
Jan. 20: Supreme Court sentences Paltan Mallah, the assailant of trade union leader Shankar Guha Niyogi, to life imprisonment and acquits five others accused in the case
Jan. 23: Three inches of snow carpet Darjeeling town. South Sikkim also records heavy snowfall
Feb. 13: The Alipurduar-Siliguri Junction Passenger rips through a pick-up van at an unmanned level crossing near Red Bank Tea Estate at Banarhat in Jalpaiguri, leaving 11 dead and eight injured
March 3: Jalpaiguri police bags the ?best kept police station? award and ?best kept district? award of the police department
April 20: The Dalai Lama arrives in Gangtok late in the evening for a week-long visit
May 25: Sonu Kumar Patel, a 16-year-old student of Siliguri Hindi High School, dies in a clash with SFI activists outside the compound of the institution, off Burdwan Road. The SFI activists had gone to the school to protest against ?donations? being charged by the school authorities from its students
May 26: The Chhatra Parishad calls a 12-hour bandh in Siliguri to protest against Sonu?s death. One arrested for the murder
May 30: The Trinamul Congress observes a bandh to protest against Sonu?s death
June 7: A citizens? convention, held under the aegis of the Save Education Committee, condemns Sonu?s death
June 7: The additional advocate-general of Punjab, Bhagabati Prasad Singla, along with two others, including the driver of the vehicle they were travelling in, dies in a road accident at Chunabhati, near Fulbari in Jalpaiguri
June 12: Tourism minister Dinesh Dakua inaugurates the first water-park in Malda town. The Rs 3-crore park is owned by a private entrepreneur, Ranjan Basak
June 15: Forensic report confirms that Sonu Patel had died of a head injury
June 16: Police fail to make a breakthrough in the Sonu Patel case, even 20 days after the boy dies
June 26: The Bailey bridge, erected by the NHPC at its Teesta Low Dam Project (Stage-III) site near Rambi, 32 km from Kalimpong, collapses the previous day. Four labourers killed and three others washed away as the bridge falls into the Teesta when a concrete-mixture-laden truck tries to cross it
June 27: A seven-member team of the DGHC river guides rescues 200 people stranded on the other side of the river after the Bailey bridge collapse. The NHPC says the Baily bridge ?accident occurred due to the collision of the transit mixer vehicle with the bridge on sudden application of the brake?
July 1: Six engineers and five contractors of the irrigation department arrested by the enforcement-branch which conducts raids in different parts of the state. The persons are charged under Sections 406, 408 and 409 of the IPC for misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 4 crore, meant for the Teesta-Jaldhaka project
July 8: Arunodoy Banerjee (57), an engineer in the irrigation department arrested in the Teesta barrage scam, dies at the district hospital in Jalpaiguri
July 29: Debashis Chakraborty, a member of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) and Siliguri Welfare Organisation (SWO), arrested from Hyderpara, Siliguri, for ?waging war against the state?
Aug. 3: The APDR and SWO take out a rally in Siliguri to protest against Chakraborty?s arrest and call a 12-hour bandh the next day
Aug. 4: One person killed and seven injured as police open fire to quell a mob protesting against the murder and alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl at Hemtabad in North Dinajpur
Aug. 5: The BJP and SUCI calls a 24-hour bandh in North Dinajpur and the Congress a 12-hour bandh in Raiganj and Hemtabad to protest against the police firing at Hemtabad
Aug. 14: A citizens? convention draws up a series of programmes to pressure the administration for the release of Chakraborty. Representatives of various organisations, including a trade union wing of a Left Front constituent, endorse the plan drawn up by the APDR and SWO
Aug. 18: For the first time in its 125-year history, two trains of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways meet with a near head-on collision at 20th Mile near Tindharia, 40 km from Siliguri
Aug. 19: The BSF and the BDR exchange more than 1,000 rounds of fire near the Muchia-Adampur area, 18 km from Malda, killing two persons
Aug. 20: Fresh shoot-out at the Malda border leaves two children injured ? one with a bullet in his lungs
Aug. 21: The BSF and the BDR opt for truce at the flag meeting in Malda
Oct. 29: After remaining in judicial custody for 90 days, Chakraborty released on statutory bail
Nov. 30: Anirudh Dhoot, managing director of Electrolux (a unit of Videocon) announces that his company will take over Kanchan, a sick jam and pickle-making factory at Matigara near Siliguri, in three month?s time. He also promises to absorb all employees of Kanchan in the new venture
Dec. 19: The NHPC fishes out skeletons of two persons from the Teesta drowned when the Bailey bridge at Rambi had collapsed
