GANGTOK, 08 Feb: The Border Roads Organisation has been at work with patch-work carpeting of National Highway 31A from Gangtok to Ranipool. This project, which began a week ago from Convoy Ground at Tadong, is still layering the edges of the highway along the Tadong stretch. It is expected to continue through the month, weather permitting.
Needless to add, the cramped highway already burdened with more traffic than was ever projected for it, is narrowing into a bottleneck at these worksites where traffic jams are common. While these can be unraveled without too many delays, the jams get worse when always-in-a-rush VIPs or in-tearing-hurry taxis jump the line and clog the road.
ANUPA RAI
Investigative journalism is the need of the hour in Sikkim. There is so much nonsense happening right under our nose but we remain ignorant as always. Or perhaps ingorant isn't the right word...state of blissful detachment would perhaps fit. I understand that any investigative journalism into the realm of government delivery systems in Sikkim is nothing if not foolhardy. We could leave that for tomorrow, but today we could hone our investigative skills by turning to non-state players like the BRO. In the name of broadening the north Sikkim highway, BRO has been carrying out a backcutting along the road for couple of years now. A total sham. A trip to Mangan, the district headquarter, is now not only tiring but also immensely perilious. Huge rock are drilled out everyday and to be held up for hours due to some blasting is not unusual. The boulders scooped out of the hillside are then loaded into a truck and carted off. Now what BRO does with these boulders is beyond the scope of understanding of laymen like me; whether BRO is actually entitled to claim ownership over these boulders too falls in that grey area. This is where an investigative journalist steps in and enlightens the curious readers like me. I have great hope in the young journalists who join NOW, which I feel is the only serious paper in Sikkim.
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