Slides block highway

Gangtok, July 13: Two landslides near Singtam on NH31A cut off Sikkim’s only road link with the rest of the country for almost two hours today.

Traffic was restored around 2.30pm.

The first landslide occurred at 32nd Mile near the Water Garden Park around 12.30pm followed by another at Martam Jhora after 15 minutes.

Around 200 vehicles, 20 of which were carrying tourists, were stranded on the highway.

Singtam is 24km from Gangtok.

“Debris and boulders were removed as soon as news of the slides was communicated to us by the police station. Two excavators were deployed. The landslides happened because of heavy rain on Thursday night,” said the chief engineer of the Border Roads Organisation, Brigadier Rajeev Sahani.

Around the same time two more landslides occurred at Lema between Chungthang and Lachen in North Sikkim, disrupting traffic for almost three hours.

Lema is 10km from Chungthang.

“Heavy rains made the clearing work difficult for us. The debris and the slush were removed by 3pm,” said a BRO official in Gangtok.

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Morcha role for 28

Darjeeling, July 13: The 28 Gorkha Janmukti Morcha candidates declared uncontested winners in the GTA polls have been asked by party chief Bimal Gurung to oversee campaigns in the remaining seats that go to polls on July 29.

Although the hill party has got the majority in the GTA Sabha before the contest, the move is an indication that Gurung is not ready for a defeat in even a single seat as it will be blow to the Morcha’s boast of “99 per cent support of the hill population”.

Today, Gurung called the “winning” candidates to Darjeeling and assigned them specific responsibilities.

Binay Tamang, the assistant general secretary of the Morcha, said: “Prakash Gurung, Ratan Thapa and Narbu G. Lama have been asked by the party chief to leave for Kalimpong immediately and help the four winning candidates from that subdivision and oversee the party’s campaign. They will help our candidates in nine constituencies.”

Sources said the party has already chalked out a campaign plan for Kalimpong and Gurung has decided to hold meetings at Relli-Samthar, Gidabling-Nimbong, Samsing-Kumai and Rongo-Jhaldhaka-Todey constituencies in the subdivision.Observers said rebel Morcha candidate Sanchabir Subba, who was expelled from the party yesterday, could pose a challenge to Morcha candidate Kalyan Dewan.

“Sanchabir, who was the party’s zonal president till recently, has a strong support base in the area (Gidabling-Nimbong). More important, the expelled Morcha leader has already started his campaign,” said an observer.

Gurung had admitted yesterday that the party could face a “semblance of a fight in Panighatta” where Trinamul’s Rajen Mukhia is in the fray.

Gurung today directed party general secretary Roshan Giri, vice-president Pradip Pradhan and Anit Thapa, Sanjay Thulung, Mahesh Pradhan, Kaziman Lohagun and Rabindra Lama to take care of the campaigns in Mirik block.

“The winning candidates from the Nari Morcha, Asha Gurung, Shanti Chhetri, Urmila Rumba and Prava Chhetri, have not been assigned any constituencies but they have been asked to be on mobile duty,” said Binay.

Gurung will address a meeting at Mirik and Panighatta, but the dates have not been decided yet.He has also decided to travel between Kalimpong and Mirik in the coming fortnight to campaign.

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Hill peace message

Kalimpong, July 13: Mamata Banerjee today held a brief meeting with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung after which both leaders spoke of promoting peace in the hills.

The Bengal chief minister, here to attend a programme to commemorate the 198th birth anniversary of the Nepali poet Bhanu Bhakta Acharya, interacted with Morcha leaders.

Later on, she had a 30-minute meeting with Gurung, after which Mamata said: “I am happy that the GTA election is happening. Once the elections are over, the Centre will release Rs 200 crore. I don’t want to see bad roads. All of us will work together. There will be no problem.”

The chief minister said though she had no time to go to other places or even for her own party, she would keep visiting the hills, if required “a thousand times”. “I don’t come to occupy your land or for politics. I haven’t come here to campaign for my party. If I don’t come then there would be no development. People get to know of these places because I come here,” she said.

Gurung said: “There were misunderstandings on certain issues but the air has been cleared now. We are committed to work with the government for the development of the hills.”

Mamata also announced projects drawn up for the hills, such as a Lepcha development council, a Nepali academy at Mungpoo and a cultural centre at Darjeeling.

Later today, she wrote on Facebook: “Today is a very special day for Darjeeling. We celebrated the 198th birth anniversary of Nepali Adi Kobi Sri Bhanu Bhakt. It is also an important day as after so many years, new members got elected in a democratic process as per the agreement of GTA…. I congratulate all of them for their participation in democratic process.”

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Fake licence racket ‘busted’

Gangtok, July 8: East district police said they had busted a fake driving licence racket in Gangtok with the arrest of a Nepali national from Tadong on Friday night.

Raju Pradhan was produced in the district sessions court here yesterday and remanded in police custody for five days.

Superintendent of police (East) M.S. Tuli said they had received information that a photo studio had been selling fake driving licence for Rs 1,500 each and on Thursday, a plainclothes policeman was sent to the shop on MP Golai Road in Tadong, 2km from here, posing as a customer.

The police said Raju took down all the details from the “customer” along with an advance of Rs 800 and asked him to come back the next day to take the driving licence after paying the balance of Rs 700.

The next day, when the “customer” went to the studio, he was given a driving licence issued in the name of the West Bengal Licensing Authority, Siliguri, the police said.

Tuli said Raju was picked up from the shop the same night and several fake driving licences, laminated cards, a computer and a scanner were recovered .

“A preliminary scan of the computer has revealed a list of fake licences manufactured by the forger in the last two months. We will follow the leads and try to find out if he had any accomplices,” Tuli said.

The officer in charge of Sadar police station said they were trying to find out how many fake licences had been issued by Raju. “Those will be confiscated and people who have them would be booked under Section 471 (using forged document) under the IPC,” he said.

The police said Raju was a drug peddler and was involved in two cases earlier.

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