Landslides hit North Sikkim homes

MANGAN, 20 Sept: Numerous major and minor landslides triggered by last night’s heavy rainfall have damaged several houses in the villages of Pakshep and Kazor under Singhik Sentam GPU of Mangan Sub-Division in North Sikkim.
Houses belonging to Santey Chettri, Bhakta Bahadur Chettri (both wooden houses), Dawa Tamang (ekra house) and under construction bathroom and toilet of Arjun Limboo of Pakshep village have been damaged by the slides which occurred this morning.
Fortunately, no loss of life has been reported. Apart from these, landslides also damaged agricultural plots belonging of Pempa Lepcha, Lakpa Tamang, Kumar Tamang, Suk Bahadur Tamang, Passang Tamang, and Bir Bahadur Tamang of the same village.
Classes at Pakshep School also got disrupted as slush entered the school.
Likewise, a landslide has damaged houses belonging to Dil Kumar Subba and Chung Chung Lepcha at Kazor village of the same GPU.
Since early this morning, villagers were engaged in diverting water running wild on the road, their efforts helping save some of houses from damage, informed ward panchayat, Kazor ward, Gajem Lepcha.
One wooden house belonging to Mercy Tamang of Ambithang Mangan also suffered damages due to a landslide while another house belonging to Paul Singh Subba is at risk.
A landslide has also been reported at RangRang village today where the slide damaged the CC footpath and Log Bridge which connects the Chandey village and RangRang. Owing to this, students coming from Chandey village could not attend their classes today.
One of the local residents, MB Thapa while speaking to NOW! informed that the construction of the log bridge at this spot was an urgent need especially for the school children and immediate restoration work needs to be undertaken. Several other houses belonging to MB Limboo, PM Thapa, Dorjee Ongey Bhutia, PB Tamang of RangRang are also at risk.
SDM Mangan, PW Lepcha visited the affected area to take stock of damages.
The SDM, while speaking to NOW!, informed that one family at Pakshep has been shifted to a safer location. He further informed that the North District administration has directed the Nagar Panchayat and BAC to prepare the list of damages and added that the disbursement of ex-gratia as per the norms will be announced shortly.