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VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Sept. 29: The Darjeeling district administration has invited people to come up with logos, slogans and a mascot for the tourism festival in December, a reminder that the hills were determined to get back to normal after the four-year-old agitation ended with the formation of the GTA.

Raju Pradhan, the working president of the organising committee of the fest, said: “We have kept aside Rs 15,000 for the competitions and we are inviting every interested individual to come up with a logo, slogan and a mascot for the festival.”

He added that participants can start sending their entries from tomorrow and the last date for submission is October 10. Logos, slogans and images of the mascot can be sent either through emails at darjfest@gmail.com or by post to Thupden Lama, the deputy magistrate, at the Darjeeling district magistrate’s office.

The 15-day Darjeeling Tea and Tourism Festival will be held in Kalimpong, Kurseong, Mirik and Darjeeling, from December 20 to January 5 simultaneously .

“The mascot for the festival will be a red panda and people will have to use their creativity to make the (image of the) mascot. The person whose mascot is selected will be awarded Rs 5,000. Similarly, the person whose one-line slogan (tag line) is selected will also get Rs 5,000 and the same amount has been kept aside for the logo winner,” said Pradhan.

According to the organisers, the details of the festival are being worked out and there are plans to bring in performers from across the country.

“We want to project the festival as an international event and we are working towards maintaining a very high standard in terms of performance,” said Pradhan.

Apart from getting a taste of adventure sports like paragliding and a trip on hot airballons, the visitors can enjoy flower shows, cultural dances, photography exhibitions and an exhibition on the Gorkha regiment.

They can also participate in the Darjeeling run and land rover rallies.

The organisers will also arrange for different activities in the tea gardens and well-known personalities from the hill town would be felicitated during the fest.

“We are working to make the festival a one-of-its-kind event and are working to create a theme song for the event,” said Sonam Bhutia, the deputy magistrate and a member of the organising committee.

“Plans are afoot to make this event an annual feature,” he said.
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RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, Sept. 29: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today demanded a special package for the hills on the lines of the Rs 1,000 crore announced by the Prime Minister for Sikkim earlier in the day.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung, in the presence of Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh, accused both the Centre and the state government of step-motherly treatment to the hills in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The MP said he has directed the district magistrate to sanction Rs 50 lakh to the Morcha relief committee from his local area development fund. He also announced assistance of nearly Rs 70 lakh from the MPLAD scheme for schools and hospitals damaged by the quake.

“I would like to request the MP to write to the Prime Minister and the state government and demand a special package for the hills,” said Gurung.

Asked what was the amount they were seeking, Singh said it shouldn’t be a “competitive situation” vis-à-vis Sikkim. “The question is not about competitive figures. The question is about relative understanding of the dynamics of the problem,” he added.

Trying to put into perspective the “hurt” expressed by the Morcha leaders, Singh said: “There should be no sense of either discrimination or Darjeeling district’s natural interest not being taken into account…Don’t make the distinction between Darjeeling and India. This is a vital part of India.”

The MP said he was in touch with at least three corporate houses, seeking aid for the hills. “I will also meet the collector (read district magistrate) and request him to sanction Rs 50 lakh from LAD to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s relief committee,” he said. Singh said Rs 20 lakh each will be given to the Seed Farm Junior High School, Gidubling High School, and the Leprosy Hospital, all of them in Kalimpong. “Rs 10 lakh will be given to the Kalimpong sub-divisional hospital,” he said. Under the MPLAD scheme, MPs can suggest projects worth Rs 2 crore a year to the district administration to be taken up in their respective constituencies.

Singh said he had discussed with a corporate house the prospects of adopting quake-hit villages similar to Latur in Maharashtra and Bhuj in Gujarat. Singh has donated Rs 3 lakh from his own account to buy food for the affected families.
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BIJOY GURUNG

Gangtok, Sept. 29: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced an interim relief of Rs 1,000 crore for immediate restoration of infrastructure after a tour of earthquake battered Sikkim.

This amount, the first instalment, is in addition to the Rs 70 crore released by the Centre four days after the 6.9 quake hit Sikkim a little more than a week ago, taking the total central relief to Rs 1,070 crore.

Officials here said the state government had placed before the Prime Minister a plea for a relief amount of Rs 7,000 crore, based on an assessment report prepared by it.

Singh did a 75-minute aerial survey of the worst-hit areas of North Sikkim in an army chopper that he boarded from Bagdogra in Siliguri around 10am. He then visited some of the victims under treatment at the government-run STNM Hospital in Gangtok.

During the 30-minute meeting that followed between Singh and chief minister Pawan Chamling in Gangtok, chief secretary Karma Gyasto gave a PowerPoint presentation on the destruction and damage caused by the September 18 quake. Chamling presented a memorandum to the Prime Minister, pleading relief under “national calamity”.

Singh assured the state of all help and announced an interim relief fund of Rs 1,000 crore for immediate restoration of damaged infrastructure like roads, buildings, schools, water supply and power lines, said Sikkim government spokesperson K.S. Topgay.

“The amount is the first instalment. This is for immediate restoration work. We have already given our memorandum and now the Centre will examine it. We warmly appreciate what the Centre has given to us but we expect more,” said Topgay.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who visited Sikkim on September 22, had said long and medium-term rehabilitation programmes would be drawn up for the state based on two central assessments.

An eight-member central team led by Shambu Singh, the joint secretary of the ministry of home affairs, is already touring the affected areas to prepare the assessment report. The team has covered North Sikkim and toured the affected areas of East and South districts today.

Singh today gave top priority to restoration of the road network in Sikkim. He has directed the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to clear the strategic North Sikkim highway leading to Chungthang by October 15.

Chungthang is 100km from Gangtok and is inaccessible because of multiple slides along the North Sikkim highway. The highway, looked after by the BRO’s Project Swastik, is important, as it is the sole link to the army and ITBP bases along the Indo-China border and also to Lachen and Lachung, the major tourism destinations.

“The Prime Minister has also directed the BRO that the restoration of the roads above Chunthang should be taken up urgently so that full connectivity is restored along the North Sikkim highway. Special dispensation will be made available for road construction. He also assured us that the aerial support from the army to reach food and evacuate people will continue till the roads are restored in North Sikkim,” said Topgay. Singh also said restoration of religious monuments would get priority.

“The Prime Minister advised the state government to learn from its experience by using proper building technology and strong building bylaws, so as to be better prepared for future occurrences of earthquakes. He will be directing central experts to assist our town planners and officials on this,” said the spokesperson.

The Prime Minister took off for Bagdogra from the Libing helipad around 1.30pm.

Army spokesperson Col Ravi Patil said the relief and rescue operations through dozen army choppers were not affected during the Prime Minister’s visit. “When the army helipad (in Libing) was occupied because of the Prime Minister’s visit, most of our relief operations to North Sikkim were being conducted from Mangan,” he said.
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The Times of India
IANS | Sep 29, 2011, 10.58AM IST

KOLKATA: Private operators and hoteliers are ecstatic over full bookings for the coming festive season, heralded in West Bengal by Durga Puja, an occasion that draws hundreds of expatriates back home.

“This puja we hope to do better business than in the last three years. All the hotels and tourist destinations are fully booked. It is a chock-a-block situation this year,” said an elated Raj Basu, chairman, Eastern Himalayas Travel and Tour Operators’ Association (Ehttoa).

The usual tourist destinations in north Bengal are the hill towns of Darjeeling, often referred to as the Queen of the Hills, Kalimpong and Kurseong, apart from forests in Jaldapara, Dooars and Gorumara.

Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, with its wild beauty, Royal Bengal Tigers and winding boat rides also attracts a large number of visitors.

“As per recent reports, all hotel rooms are fully booked in the northern part of the state. Tour operators are having a tough time in adjusting the flow of tourists. The numbers have gone up substantially,” said Deepak Parekh, member, Travel Agents Federation of India, eastern zone.

The tour operators are expecting a 75 percent jump in tourist inflow to north Bengal compared to the last three years.

The signs are positive. North Bengal has escaped major damage in the quake, peace is back in Darjeeling and the government is formulating special packages for drawing tourists to the Sunderbans.

West Bengal becomes a popular tourist destination during October and November when around 100,000 foreigners and visitors from other parts of the country turn up in the state to drench themselves in the spirit of autumnal festivities that include the five-day Durga Puja festival followed by Diwali and Kali Puja.

This year, Durga Puja begins Oct 2.

Darjeeling with its varied landscape and spectacular beauty has been a favourite and affordable destination not only for Bengalis but also for people across the globe.

Tourism in Darjeeling, which accounts for substantial revenues for the state tourism industry, has been badly hit since 2008 when the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) revived a violent stir in support of forming a separate state of Gorkhaland.

Now the internationally famous hill resort is hoping to return to its good old days after the inking of a peace accord in July.

Parekh confessed that tour operators have been receiving hundreds of anxious calls about the conditions in Darjeeling from tourists who have done advance booking for the Durga Puja season after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked large parts of northern and eastern India Sep 18.

“We are monitoring the whole situation but as of now there have been no major cancellations,” Parekh said.

Basu said the rush of tourists for Durga Puja is scheduled to start on Thursday.

Parekh’s concerns were echoed by Jeet Pradhan of Janmukti Hotel Owners Association, the largest hotel association in North Bengal.

“Though there have been no major cancellations, we are concerned,” said Pradhan.

During the month-long festive season, north Bengal hoteliers expect 15 days of full occupancy and 15 days of partial occupancy.

State Tourism Minister Rachpal Singh said nothing much should be read into the calls being made by tourists.

“Actually this is due to the temporary problem. Most of the roads have opened there and we are working tirelessly to repair the damage,” said Singh.

With all schools and most of the offices closed during the four days of Puja, people prefer short tours to various destinations.

The Sunderbans affairs ministry is also rolling out the red carpet.

“We have ensured that more motor boats and launches are run during this season as a lot of tourists come just after Puja. This tourist season extends till the end of November. We have taken all steps for the security of the tourists,” Sunderbans Development Minister Shyamal Mondol said.

“We are getting a good number of bookings for the post-Durga Puja season. Most of the house boat-type launches which house tourists during this season are fully booked,” said Debjit, a tour operator.

Going by the slogan of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of turning Kolkata into London, the state tourism industry is introducing roofless double-decker buses, a hot air balloon service and helicopter services to attract more tourists.

“We are planning to bring 10 Volvo buses, two roofless double-decker buses during this Puja as special attraction. We are also planning hot air balloon services and helicopter services for the tourists,” said Singh.
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BIRESWAR BANERJEE

Siliguri, Sept. 28: A fresh landslide has caused a cave-in on NH55 at Tindharia this morning, creating uncertainty over the opening of the highway that connects Darjeeling with Siliguri and has been shut since June 16 last year.

The road along with the toy train tracks has collapsed along a 150-metre stretch, a repetition of what had happened at Paglajhora last year. At Paglajhora, a known sink zone, the road had given away along a stretch of 500 metres.

Since the earthquake on September 18, there have been instances of boulders and slush slipping down the hillside on NH55.

PWD engineers said the restoration would be difficult because though it takes only a few hours to clear debris, the road has altogether disappeared at Tindharia, like it did in Paglajhora.

“This will disrupt road connectivity between Siliguri and Tindharia through NH55,” Nirmal Mondal, the executive engineer of NH-IX division of the state PWD, said today.

“After a similar damage in Paglajhora last year, people from Siliguri could at least reach Tindharia through NH55. After today, this road cannot be used altogether. Unlike other places where debris can be cleared within hours, there is no sign of the road here.”

Paglajhora is about 35km from here and 5km from Tindharia.

The road at both the spots have to be built from below till the highway level, engineers said.

Since last year, all small vehicles have been travelling on the Sukna-Simulbari-Rohini-Kurseong route to reach Darjeeling. Although the route takes a little more than three hours — almost like NH55 — the road is narrow and dotted with potholes.

The problem is greater for heavy vehicles that have to go through the Sevoke-Mungpoo route to Darjeeling, the broadest after NH55 but it is more time and fuel-consuming. It takes at least six hours to reach Darjeeling through this route.

Mondal said if the rain continued, it would be difficult to restore the road by this year.

“We had almost finished working on the stretch at Paglajhora and had planned to allow traffic from September 25, but before that the earthquake struck. Since then, the frequency of debris and stones rolling down the hillside has increased in the area, creating pressure on the sink zone. If the downpour continues, the situation will worsen. It will be difficult for us to work in this weather. We have serious doubts if the highway can be opened by 2011,” Mondal said.

Scared by the fresh landslide at least 10 families with houses along the highway have shifted to “safer” places.

“This morning, around 10am when it was raining heavily, suddenly we heard a noise like something huge tumbling down. We rushed out of our homes and found that the road had gone down,” said Esther Sharma, who lives near the Hill Cart Road in Tindharia.

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BIJOY GURUNG

Gangtok, Sept. 28: The reception that is being arranged for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he comes here tomorrow has not gone down well with a section of people here.

Usually a visiting VVIP gets to see colourful gates and freshly painted pavement railings. Potholes on the road that the guest is supposed to travel on, too, disappear overnight to ensure a smooth ride.

This time, however, the sight of pavement railings along the 2km Deorali-Gangtok stretch getting a fresh coat of green and the Border Roads Organisation working hard to cover the craters on NH31A have enraged a lot of people.

Some have vented their feelings through a group a social networking site.

“So sad that inspite of all the terror n destruction faced by da people….da gov is still trying to present an image of a happy beautiful place……”, one person wrote on the wall where a picture of two workers painting railings has been uploaded.

A VVIP visiting Gangtok usually lands in the army helipad at Libing and proceeds towards Deorali to take NH31A to reach the state capital.

“hope govt. (whoever is incharge) will not ask students to line up along the road holding tricolor to welcome the PM. Stop impressing at least at this time of moment,” wrote a user.

“how can we ask for 1 lakh crore for damages when PM sees gangtok so shiny and new..wonder who’s bright idea it was..,” posted another member of the group that was created after the recent quake.

To facilitate the repair, Gangtok-bound vehicles have been diverted from Indira bypass to meet NH31A at Hospital Dara. The detour takes 30 minutes extra. Traffic leaving the town has to travel via Nam Nang to meet the national highway at Deorali.

Bhandari on quake

Former chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee president Nar Bahadur Bhandari has said the magnitude of the damage in Sikkim caused by the earthquake on September 18 has been “contributed” by the Chamling government’s thrust on hydel policy.

“The magnitude of damage has been contributed by the thoughtless, selfish and myopic policy of the present SDF government under the leadership of chief minister Pawan Chamling….Ruthless deforestation in the project areas, extensive use of explosives by the power developers have directly or indirectly contributed to the present disaster..,” Bhandari said in a memorandum faxed to the Prime Minister yesterday.

The remark comes two days after Chamling said the hydel plants in the state could not be blamed for the recent tremors. A faculty member of the geology and geophysics department of IIT Kharagpur had also echoed him. “Hydel projects do not cause earthquakes and the chief minister is correct…,” he had said.

Bhandari has demanded that the Centre should “immediately scrap” all mega power projects “if it wanted Sikkim to exist as a state.

“How could the chief minister declare damage of 1 lakh houses and loss of Rs 1 lakh crore immediately after the disaster struck? He could not have collected information immediately after the calamity particularly when his administration was paralysed for almost 48 hours,” the memorandum reads.

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The Times of India
Deep Gazmer, TNN | Sep 28, 2011, 03.36AM IST

DARJEELING: West Bengal governor M K Narayanan on Tuesday arrived in the Hills to take stock of the relief measures that have been undertaken after the September 18 earthquake damaged properties worth crores and killed six people.

On his way to Darjeeling, the governor visited Giddeypahar in Kurseong and met the affected people there. The 6.8 magnitude earthquake had brought down two buildings at Giddeypahar.

In Darjeeling, Narayanan first visited the district hospital and inquired about the patients. He inspected the fourth floor of the hospital that had developed cracks. The governor asked the chief medical officer whether any patient was hurt or medical equipment had been damaged in the earthquake.

Being aware of the fact that patients had ran away from the hospital on the night of the earthquake, the governor asked, “Has the patients who had run away returned?” S Bhowmick, the Darjeeling district chief medical officer of health, informed the governor that 59 people injured in the earthquake had been admitted at various government hospitals in the Hills region and that six had died.

Later in the day, Narayanan visited Lebong Cart Road, where a massive landslide devoured a 30-metre stretch on the road late Sunday night. The northern parts of Darjeeling have remained cut off since then as all vehicular movement along the road has been suspended.

The army has taken the responsibility to construct a bridge to facilitate movement of vehicles.

The governor will visit Kalimpong on Wednesday. He will then return to Kolkata and submit his report to the state government on the situation in the Hills.
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The Times of India
Josy Joseph, TNN | Sep 26, 2011, 03.56AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Army has given an unusual suggestion to the government for improving the relief and rescue operations in earthquake devastated regions of Sikkim – keep VVIPs off the area.

A senior government source said the Army conveyed its suggestion to the defence ministry this weekend, after the Army and IAF were forced to divert significant number helicopters and personnel for visit of various VVIPs. Among those who have already visited the region are Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and home minister P Chidambaram.

The suggestion could put an end to the plans of other Union ministers and senior political leaders to visit Gangtok and other areas of northern Sikkim where the damage has been the worst. The Army on its part is also believed to have decided not to plan a trip by the Army chief or other senior officers to avoid strain on the ongoing rescue operations.

Because of a host of factors, including the remoteness of villages, the rescue and relief operations are heavily dependent on the helicopter fleet of IAF and Army. Between the two forces, there is a fleet of Advance Light Helicopters, Cheetah/Chetak and Mi-17s in the region.

For Chungthang and beyond, the Army maintains ration of 55 days on normal times, as part of its preparedness for the border region. But since the earthquake, this ration is being distributed to local residents. Thus maintaining those ration stocks, reaching aviation fuel, diesel etc to the military formations that are beyond the road cut-off by earthquake are all dependent on helicopters.

An Army official said personnel of 33 Corps has reached almost all villages, but in many villages they found only rubble. It could be due to the residents migrating to nearest road-heads, or other villages, or there could be worse than assessed disaster buried in those villages, he admitted.

Over 90 people have been killed and a few hundred injured in the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck on September 18.
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zeenews.india.com
Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 13:21

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has approached central agency RITES for consultancy in upgrading infrastructure with a view to promote tourism in the city, Darjeeling hills and the sea resort town of Digha.

“We have approached the RITES, a Central agency engaged in providing engineering consultancy, for a comprehensive and sustainable tourism project in the state. We are waiting for their response by the end of the year,” Tourism Minister Rachpal Singh said.

Stating that the state has tremendous potential in tourism, he said, the state needed to develop infrastructure to draw tourists from other states and abroad.

“Infrastructure could be improved on the basis of the RITES report. The cost required for the development could also be known only after the report is received,” he said.

Two projects — Kolkata Heritage Mega Tourism Project and Dooars Mega Tourism Circuit — have been given priority for the year 2011-12, he said.

To revive the lost glory of Darjeeling, the tourism department has proposed to renovate and restore some of the iconic heritage properties there, the minister said.

These heritage buildings included Planters’ Club, Gymkhana Club, St. Andrew’s Church, Darjeeling and Kalimpong Monasteries, etc.

The tourism department also has plans to restore the houses like Tagore Museum and Sureil Bungalow, associated with Rabindranath Tagore at Mongpu in Darjeeling district.

At Kalimpong in the same district, the Chitrabhanu House and Gouripur House would be co-opted in the circuit of museums, the minister said.

PTI
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BIJOY GURUNG

Gangtok, Sept. 27: The official toll of the earthquake in Sikkim has dropped to 60 from 77 after names that had appeared more than once on the casualty list were removed and those reported missing traced.

A search team also recovered the decomposed body of Subrata Ranjan Nath, a retired brigadier from Calcutta who was the chief project adviser to Abir Infrastructure Private Limited, which had been implementing the Teesta Urja 1200MW hydel power project in Chungthang.

The casualty list for the three districts — South (1), West (4) and East (14) — remains the same. The death toll has come down only in worst-hit North Sikkim. The figure there now is 41. Earlier, it was 58.

Sikkim police spokesperson, senior superintendent of police Prawin Gurung, said this evening that the death toll had come down to 60 from 77 yesterday. “The reason is that there were many persons reported missing in North Sikkim who had been recorded as dead. There was also duplication of names of those killed. Now rescue teams have reached all the spots and verified the missing and the dead. So the actual number of dead people is now 60,” he said.

The police spokesperson said four to five bodies could not be recovered as they were still under debris.

Nath’s body was found in Shipgyer in North Sikkim’s Dzongu. On September 18, the retired army brigadier was on his way to Shipgyer, opposite Chungthang valley, from nearby Toong when landslides struck his vehicle. Two other persons who were with him in the vehicle had managed to escape. Nath was from Calcutta, police said.

Arrangements are being made to transport his body to Mangan, the North district headquarters.

Clear skies after four days of inclement weather allowed the army to stretch their rescue and relief operations to the maximum level today. A dozen army choppers were pressed into service, dropping ration and officials and evacuating stranded civilians from remote areas of North Sikkim.

Army spokesperson Colonel Ravi Patil said 2,550kg of ration was dropped in six villages of the Dzongu area and 9,408kg of food packets and medical items in Chunthang, Lachen, Chatten and Lachung.

The North Sikkim highway from Mangan to Chunthang, a distance of 100km, is still blocked by landslides and inaccessible.

“We also dropped a six-member team consisting of scientists, geologists and structural engineers in Lachung to survey the damage there. Two doctors were also dropped at Lachen,” said Col Patil.

An eight-member central team consisting of officials from the ministries of home affairs, health and roads arrived in Gangtok today to assess the damage.

An SPG team also landed in Gangtok on a recce before the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is expected here on September 29.
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BIJOY GURUNG

Gangtok, Sept. 27: The East district administration has issued dismantling orders to 11 multi-storeyed buildings in Gangtok and Singtam as the damaged structures have become a threat to adjoining houses.

Six of these buildings, with five or more floors, will have to be demolished fully. In the other buildings, only the vulnerable floors will be dismantled.

Although Gangtok has a height restriction of five storeys because it is located in a vulnerable seismic zone, civic norms are often flouted.

Notices under Section 144 of the CrPc — under which evacuation orders can be given — have been issued to owners of the 11 buildings in the past couple of days by the district administration, an official said. Three of these buildings are in Singtam, 35km from Gangtok, and the others in the state capital itself.

Three more buildings have been recommended to the state government for partial demolition by an assessment team.

The team has also recommended that the already collapsed building at Baluwakhani in Gangtok, belonging to Bhaichung Bhutia’s mentor and state sports secretary Karma P. Bhutia, needs to be dismantled and the debris cleared. The five-storeyed house collapsed when an adjoining six-storey structure tilted and fell on it on Friday night.

A team consisting of officials from the urban development and mines and geology departments and researchers from IIT-Roorkee conducted a survey of 406 buildings in and around Gangtok and Singtam yesterday.

“Six buildings are to be totally demolished while the floors of the remaining five need to be dismantled,” said Sikkim government spokesperson K.S. Topgay. The assessment is that around 70 buildings need to be evacuated but some of these can be strengthened with retro-fittings (or iron bars), he said.

“Demolition orders were issued as the team felt that these buildings were posing danger to other buildings and residents. The owners have to demolish the buildings within three days on the receipt of the order on their own expenses. If not, the government will be demolishing the buildings and costs will recovered from the owners,” said an official.

The government had announced that Rs 50,000 would be given for major damage. For minor damage and cracks, the compensation would range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 depending on the nature of the house.

Sources said a demolition squad from New Delhi would be reaching Gangtok today. The owners of the seven-storeyed Hotel Superview Himalchuli, one of the buildings to be totally demolished, have appealed to the state government to give them time to bring in experts so that options can be explored to save the building.

“Instead of going straight for demolition, we request the state government to give us some time to explore options to find out if the hotel can be saved. The government has to help the people. We have contacted experts in Calcutta who are specialists in restoring damaged structures. We want to use the available technology of retrofitting or column shifting. Such action has saved some buildings in Gangtok, which had been ordered demolition during the 2006 earthquake,” said Satish Bardewa, son of S.K. Bardewa who owns the hotel.

The hotel has some 30 rooms. When it suffered cracks during the September 18 quake, all its occupants were evacuated. The hotel is closed now.

Satish said the demolition cost alone would run up to more than Rs 20 lakh considering that the building has to be pulled down first by hired labourers and then the debris transported for dumping outside Gangtok. “Constructing another building from scratch is another big issue,” said Satish.

The owners of a damaged five-storeyed building at Tadong near Sikkim Government College, however, have already hired labourers to demolish it. The building, constructed during the early 80s, had been damaged by the quake is also among the six that has to be totally pulled down.

“Considering the damage to the building, we are already prepared to demolish it. Once the order was given to us a couple of days ago, we brought workers to demolish it. The shopkeepers and tenants of this building have moved out along with the owner and family members,” said Robin Gurung who is supervising the demolition.

The top two floors are now being demolished.

“We are not asking for any any help from the government at this time. We are more concerned about the danger the building possesses to other adjoining structures. First we want to remove this threat and later on, if the government gives us aid, then it’s ok,” said Gurung.

The building had tilted dangerously close to a three-storeyed building of businessman Raj Kumar Prasad. “We were scared. Now we can breathe in relief as some demolition has taken place reducing the weight on our building,” he said.

According to East district collector D Anandan, more than 900 houses in the district have collapsed and more than 5,000 houses suffered major damage. More than 10,000 houses have suffered minor damages in East district, he said.

The district authorities are touring the affected areas and preparing a list of damaged houses to provide compensation as announced by the state government.
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Siliguri, Sept. 27: The tea sector in the Dooars and the Terai has suffered a loss of Rs 6 crore after the September 18 quake hit its infrastructure which ranged from staff accommodation to factory buildings.

The highest individual loss of nearly Rs 2 crore was suffered by a garden owned by Goodricke in the Dooars.

Tea planters, who are yet to pay the revised salary to workers, are now grappling with the expense needed to repair the damaged infrastructure, which also includes brew manufacturing factories whose boundary walls have given away. Most garden managements fear that the security of the factories with their expensive machines were at stake.

“It is indeed a new challenge for us because in the Dooars alone, at least 30-35 gardens, who are our members, have suffered damage during the earthquake. A rough estimate indicates that the loss is around Rs 5.50 crore which in all probability, is going to climb as the assessment of many gardens are yet to be finished. The highest loss borne by an individual garden is Denguajhar owned by Goodricke. It has suffered a loss of around Rs 2 crore,” said Prabir Bhattacharjee, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of the Indian Tea Association.

Denguajhar is located outside Jalpaiguri town. Goodricke owns 12 gardens in the Dooars.

Describing the condition of Denguajhar, a DBITA source said: “In the earthquake, 632 workers’ quarters were damaged. Five bungalows, 19 staff quarters and a crèche have suffered damage. Boundary walls of the warehouse, factory and hospital have collapsed and so have eight culverts, built over rivulets criss-crossing the garden.”

The other gardens which have suffered major losses include Dalsinghpara (Rs 40 lakh), Central Dooars (Rs 35 lakh), Gandrapara (Rs 30 lakh), Washabari (Rs 25 lakh), Jiti (Rs 20 lakh) and Sankosh, Saylee, Barodighi, Beech, Banarhat and Leesh River — each Rs 10 lakh and above.

Trade union leaders said the damage indicated the plight of the workers. “Over the past few years, we had been insisting that the dwelling units of workers, most of which are in pitiable condition, be repaired,” said Samir Roy, the convener of the Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights, an apex body of tea trade unions. “The planters, however, did not heed our pleas and now, after the earthquake, it is evident that our apprehensions were correct: the workers were living in unsafe quarters.”

Ranjit Datta, the north Bengal branch secretary of the Tea Association of India with its 35 member gardens, said 15 estates of the Terai have suffered damage of nearly Rs 35 lakh.

“We are fortunate that there had been no major casualty during the quake. However, the losses suffered by the gardens have to be borne by the managements concerned,” he said.
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