“Where is the Government?” people ask

CHUNGTHANG, 25 Sept: “Where is the government”? is the question on everyone’s lips at Ground Zero, Chungthang. A week after the devastating earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale and after having experienced the brunt of devastation and isolation in the aftermath, there is no senior government or political presence at the north district sub-divisional town. Now that the initial travails of survival and organizing relief have settled down, the people are bursting with pent up anger and high emotion at their having to fight their battle for survival on their own. “Where is the CM, even our area MLA has not enquired about us in enough detail,” says a local.
With Chungthang, Lachen, Lachung and surrounding villages bearing the brunt of the trail of devastation left by landslides triggered by the earthquake, it was expected that the relief operations would be administered and supervised by senior government presence. The people seem totally disillusioned by both the political dispensation as well as the government.

Though there is high praise for the local administration led by the SDM, Tashi Chophel, BDO Samdup Bhutia and the police, the people are still waiting for a ‘senior’ official to land and lend an ear to their problems and sufferings.
The people are also miffed at the fact that there has been no local media presence there. This sentiment is also echoed by ACT convener, Tseten Lepcha, who stated that there is much anger among the people here. “There should be some senior level officials here at this particular time. This would free the sub-divisional officers to concentrate on other tasks. At present, they have to handle everything,” he said.
This has further been aggravated by the fact that the past two days there was no air drop or evacuation due to bad weather. The people have been waiting for relief materials to be airdropped. It was only this afternoon that choppers could take off and land from Chungthang, Lachen and Lachung.
As of now, all the local arrangements, including that of food and shelter, is being conducted by the SDM office, panchayat, army and the locals.
“There is nothing from the government. It has been seven days and no leader of consequence has come here to ground zero,” the locals complain.
They further say that there is no systematic arrangement for the evacuation. It was informed that some of the expenditures were being borne by the SDM and others by the locals themselves with all the people contributing.
“The Teesta Urja is only catering to its own personnel while the ITBP is not allowing us to go through the tunnels as they say it is very dangerous,” they inform. While the tunnels have been cleared and are largely intact, it still remains a risky journey to take. One tunnel, it was informed had suffered serious damages; however none have collapsed.
The most acute problem for the people of Chungthang, however, is that of access to clean water.
The main supply line has been damaged and water is being drawn from Kala Pathar. There is urgent need of water pipes to complete repairs, says Tseten Lepcha; he adds the dirty water which is the only water available along with the many people having come down to Chungthang could pose a health hazard.
There is also some irritation at the kinds of materials being airdropped as these do not seem to be catering to the necessities at this particular time.
The people need tarpaulins, torches, bottled water etc.
Sonam Pintso, the Food in charge informed that there was urgent need of bottled water as the present available source which was the khola could lead to large scale diarrhea.
These are genuine concerns which have not yet been addressed and which further lead the people to believe that they are being meted out step-motherly treatment by the government. The town people have been without power for the past week and as per information it would take another couple of weeks at least for power to be restored to Chungthang.
Other locals informed that the total infrastructure of the town had been damaged and that most buildings would now have to be dismantled.
Tashi Wangyal Lepcha, a resident of Chungthang, stated that the government should send a team of experts to study and examine the structures so that they could suggest and recommend as to which structures were safe.
“There is also the question of who will dismantle the damaged buildings and how,” he adds.