Essential commodities to be airdropped to affected areas in North Sikkim

COMMUNITY SERVICE COMES TO ASSISTANCE OF AFFECTED PEOPLE IN MANGAN

WANGCHUK BHUTIA
MANGAN, 21 Sept: With most parts of the North district still inaccessible to vehicles and too dangerous to ferry head-loads to, supply of essential commodities is now being planned to be airdropped to the more remote areas. Officials inform that the food godowns at Chungthang and Mangan were well stocked, but provisions at the cut-off remote villages were diminishing fast.
Apart from rescuing the injured and extracting dead bodies from these inaccessible areas, the Food & Civil Supplies Department’s North Sikkim office has managed to make arrangements to reach essential commodities to different inaccessible areas by helicopter.
The weather, however, packed up today and supplies could not be dropped off today despite several attempts, informs Baychung Lecha, Deputy Director, F&CS Deptt.
On the existing supplies, Mr. Lepcha informs that the stocks at Chungthang FCS godown should should till they can be replenished. 
“We have around 330 quintals of rice already in Chungthang and 150 quintals at the Mangan food godown. We are confident that no shortage will be faced,” he said. 
The challenge is to reach the supplies to the affected area, a role which the heli-service is delivering on at present.
Meanwhile, NSS volunteers, local youth and representatives from local NGOs are extending help to reach food-stocks to the affected people.
The Mangan Nagar Panchayat, supported by volunteers from local NGOs, has opened a community kitchen in town to provide meals to the affected people and other volunteers. The NYK Mangan is also working hard to reach refreshments to locations like Manul, Lingzya etc beyond Mangan.