Darjeeling CPM shuffle

TT, Siliguri, July 3: Jibesh Sarkar, the Darjeeling district CPM secretary, today announced the names of new members of the party's district secretariat and district committee.

"While Radha Chhetri will be a full-time member of the new secretariat, Shankar Ghosh will be an invitee. There will be total 15 members in the secretariat," Sarkar told journalists here today.

Asok Bhattacharya, Jibesh Sarkar, Saman Pathak, Ajit Sarkar, Anil Saha, K.B.Wattar, Nurul Islam, Parimal Bhowmik, Gautam Ghosh, Jharen Roy and Chhoton Kisku have been made full time members of the district secretariat.

Dilip Singh and Mukul Sengupta would be permanent invitees in the district secretariat.

Two leaders, Dibash Choubey and S.B. Tamang, have been removed from the secretariat.

"We have also included three new leaders as permanent invitees in the 40-member district committee. They are Mehboob Alam, Ramesh Kararia and Sudip Dutta," Sarkar said.

The CPM state secretary, Surjya Kanta Mishra, was also present at the news conference. He was in Siliguri to attend a workers' meet organised by the Darjeeling district Left Front. At the news conference, Mishra handed over Rs 2 lakh to the district leaders for providing relief to the victims of landslides.

Asok Bhattacharya, the Siliguri mayor and convener of district Left Front, said he would visit the affected areas of Mirik block tomorrow and hand over the money to the needy.