BJP team reaches North Sikkim, unhappy with missing State presence in affected areas

GANGTOK, 25 Sept: A Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] central committee team led by Chairman of the Committee on Petitions, Rajya Sabha, Bhagat Singh Koshyari and former MP, Tapir Gaur accompanied by BJP Sikkim Incharge, Indrasen Reddy and BJP state president, Padam Chettri visited the affected areas of North Sikkim this morning. They visited Chaten, Lachung and Chungthang.
Addressing a press conference later in the evening, Mr. Singh informed that senior BJP leaders had advised them to make a visit to the state and see first-hand the status and examine the actual situation of the affected areas.

“I am even more surprised that the Chief Minister has still not made a visit to these places, to add not even the area MLAs have even made an effort to visit their respective constituencies. It seems that either they are in a state of panic or are not anxious or worried about the people which is very worrying,” he said and added that this should have been the top priority of the CM, as it all depends upon the head of the State on how he acts or reacts to a situation at hand.
“What is even more surprising is that till date, neither the State Government nor the Relief Commissioner for that matter, has a provisional report on the damage caused by the earthquake. So I don’t know what papers they are going to place to the Prime Minister when he makes his visit to Sikkim in a day or two,” he added.
The team visited Chaten today, where they were able to land and interact with the people and it seems that they were the first team to land there. They assured the people that everything was being done and that relief would be reached to them as soon as possible. It was not possible for them to land at Lachung, but they did do an aerial survey of the area. But the worst affected was Chungthang, it was in a very bad state and there was lot of devastation which cannot be compensated, they shared.
“It felt good to see the Army and the ITBP along with locals working together, but evacuation of stranded people should be given top priority,” he said and added that since there were so many hydel projects in the area, the help from the corporate sector should be taken for evacuation of the people by the state government.
 “The State government is not at all organised and no disaster management teams could be seen in any of the places we visited, it was only the Army, the ITBP and the BRO who were doing all the rescue and relief works in the affected areas”, stated Mr. Gaur.
There is immediate need of Tarpuline sheets, candles, raincoats, drinking water, torchlight, etc. for the people as well as for the relief and rescue workers, he added.