Upper Dzongu cancels this year’s Namsoong celebrations

MANGAN, 30 Nov: An executive body meeting of the Namprikdang Namsoong Celebration Committee was held at Passingdang in Upper Dzongu under the chairmanship of President Nezing Lepcha on 29 November.

The meeting was especially convened to decide and deliberate on the celebration of the festival this year. After due deliberation among the committee members and also taking into consideration the suggestions received from panchayats and village elders, the meeting unanimously decided not to celebrate the Namsoong festival this year at Namprikdang to mourn the loss of lives in the 18 September earthquake.
The celebration committee also lost two of its active members, Tashi Tshering Lepcha (Panchayat member) and Passang Tshering Lepcha. The impact of earthquake was most severe in North Sikkim especially in Dzongu and apart from the loss of lives, properties have also been damaged extensively.
The infrastructure in-and-around the Celebration venue has also been severely damaged. The meeting decided that a grand puja “Rum Faat” will be organized during the Namsoong holidays for peace and prosperity in the future and to appease nature.
18 September Earthquake claims another life
GANGTOK, 30 Nov: The earthquake of 18 September claimed one more life yesterday, when a lady succumbed to burn injuries sustained during her panic flight at the time of earthquake. Kiden Lepcha, a 59 year old resident of Navey Shotak below Pangthang, breathed her last at the Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial [STNM] Hospital on 29 November.
The Sadar Police Station received a “call book intimation” from the Medical Officer on duty at the STNM Hospital at around 7 a.m. yesterday informing that Ms. Lepcha, wife of Dukpa Lepcha, who had been admitted at STNM Hospital on 18 September with 35 per cent burn injuries and was undergoing treatment succumbed to her injuries.
As per police reports, when the earthquake rattled Sikkim on 18 September, the victim’s house at Navey-Shotak collapsed. Ms. Lepcha, in her rush to escape the unstable house, stumbled over the stove sustaining severe burn injuries on the lower half of her body. A wooden log too fell on her right foot, fracturing it.
She was immediately brought to the STNM Hospital, where she was under treatment for 13 days and was then referred to Anandlok Hospital in Siliguri on 02 October. She remained there for a little over a month before being brought back to the Central Referral Hospital [CRH] at Tadong where she was admitted for one day before again being brought back to STNM Hospital.
On 29 November at around 6 a.m. she succumbed to her injuries at the STNM Hospital.