Himalayan Times (1961)

February 19, 1961 Himalayan Times
_J-.-,-^-.-

DARJEEL1NG MUNICIPAL ELECTION POSTPONED

Deplorable Condition of Civic Amenities

( From Our Correspondent )
Darjfelir.g, February 15

I understand that the
State Government has
agreed to the Darjeeling
Municipality'* request to
postpone the eleolions due
to be held iu August for
two nionibs, to enable
fresh electoral rolls to be
prepared. This would ad
ditioually give Verne mu-
nicipal comm^sioners a
renewed opportunity to
placate and pacifv cons-
tituents to many of whom
they had been strangers
sines ' winning the lest',
elections, A fevtrish' ac-
tivity was markedly noti-
ceable recently among
oommi'siouera who flitted
from door to door enrol-
ling voters eligible to'
vote in the ooming eleo-
tiom.

One would be inte-
rested to know why oom •
missioners spend so much
time and money to get
elected—the job holds no
subsidy, the honour h
rather ambiguou* while
the amount of publio ser-
vice commissioners are
able to perform is hard
to hazard.

For instance, Darjee-
ling Municipality has an
annual revenue of more

than Rupees sixteen Hea-
rt tidy sum to administer
au area of roughly four
square miles. Yet civic
amenities continue detona-
ting. .Drains are filthy,
refuse and garbage aocu:
mutate in streets for days,
str' et ligbts are so poor,
that Walking'at night ia
becoming an Occupational
hazard; The water supply-
is irregular ana fitfnl^-
roads wear a garish and
pitiable look, food adul-
teration is increasing, par
ticularly in milk and milk
produols.

In the past, frequent
attention to the deplora

ble condition ot civic
am nities has been drawn
without any tangible im-
provement. Complaints
about irregularities con-
cerning constructions are
often heard. More serious
and a positive danger to
the people are the large
number of anoientard
dilapidated buildings in
some area*—among them
Bamun Bustee, Chand-
mari and Butcher Bustee.
It would be interesting
to know what steps the
commissioners have taken
to safeguard publio life

Three

and prcperty by . serving
notices to owners to either
pull down those buildings
or to .have them repaired
properly.'? The " rather
tame excuse about paucity
of building materials is
untenable when the ques-
tion of the safety of the
town and its' peoples are
concerned,. Perhaps the
commissioners would de-
vote more attention to
this problem rather than
naming streets after their
• own kith and kin.

INDIA RESPONSIBLE FOR

BHUTAN'S DEFENCE

New Delhi, Feb. 15

Mr. Nehru informed
the Lbk S&bha today that
for the present, India did
not contemplate any fur-
ther negotiations with
China in regard to the
frontier dispute between
the two countries.

Mr. Nehru told Mr.
Prakash Vir Shastri that
there was no queatien of
his going to Peking in
the near future for dis-
cussiona with Mr. Choul
En-lai nor had there been
any talk about it.

Replying to another
question about Bhutan,
Mr. Nehru said that any
aggression on Bhutan by
China would be regarded
as. aggression on India.
India had undertaken full
responsibility for the de-
fence of Bhutan he added.