GANGTOK, Oct 10: The evacuation of stranded tourists from Lachen and Lachung in North Sikkim was resumed by the armed forces on Tuesday with the weather remaining clear for the second day, officials said.
Around 95 stranded people were brought from Lachung and Lachen by choppers. The first group from Lachung included 17 tourists and two locals of Lachung village. The choppers made two sorties to the area in the morning. Those from Lachung were being brought to Pakyong Airport near Gangtok.
The first batch of 76 stranded people, including two children, was evacuated from Lachen by helicopters in three sorties. They were brought to Ringhim Helipad at Mangan
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The district magistrate of Mangan, Hem Kumar Chettri said the Indian Air Force (IAF) has presently put three helicopters into action with two choppers flying to Lachen and one to Lachung.
Chettri said at the moment evacuation of tourists and sick people is the first priority of the district administration.
The choppers will carry out more sorties to airlift stranded tourists from Lachung and Lachen towns in the worst-hit Mangan district, officials said.
The state government has arranged SNT buses to help the tourists travel to Siliguri and Gangtok, they said.
Around 3,000 tourists from various parts of the country got stranded in North Sikkim towns after the cloudburst in Lhonak lake caused flash floods in Teesta river which ravaged Chungthang valley and flooded the river basin area in four districts downstream on October 4.
On Monday over 360 tourists were evacuated from Lachen and Lachung.
The DM said that till now a total of over 700 people have been evacuated from flood-hit areas and have been brought to safety, these persons include tourists, locals and labourers who were stuck in areas like Chungthang where a bailey bridge was built for emergency evacuation.
The DM also said that rescue and rehabilitation teams have already reached the affected areas and are working at ground level. He stated that BSNL telephone lines in Lachung have been restored and by Tuesday evening telephone connectivity in Lachen and Chungthang will also be restored. He said that power to Chungthang, Lachen and Lachung will also be restored by Tuesday evening.
The floods extensively damaged road infrastructure and telecommunication network in North Sikkim as a result of which around 3,000 tourists got stranded for five days. At least 70 people have lost their lives in the calamity and 80 others are still missing. The total number of affected population is 87,300, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority said.
Meanwhile, an inter-ministerial central team led by joint secretary of the Union ministry of home affairs, Anant Kishore Saran on Tuesday left for North Sikkim by helicopter to assess the damage caused by the flash floods in the area.
Members of the central team visited the affected areas in Gangtok and Pakyong district. Among the areas they visited were IBM, Rangpo, ATTC-Bardang, Golitar, Singtam, Dikchu and Phidang where they assessed the damage caused to buildings, power lines, roads and bridges.
They also visited a relief camp in Majigaon and made certain recommendations for the maintenance of proper sanitation at rescue centres besides suggesting counselling for the inmates to boost their morale.
On the financial assistance, they said that priority will be given to immediate and short-term requirements of the state, and assured that release of funds will be expedited so that normalcy can be restored at the earliest.
The team also held a meeting with Sikkim chief secretary VB Pathak on Monday.
On the other hand, the Sikkim government has directed all schools in the flood-ravaged state to conduct online classes for students of Class nine and above.
The direction for online classes was given to compensate for the loss of class hours due to the closure of educational institutions till October 15 after the flash floods, an official of the education department said.
“As you are aware, the week-long closure of schools has resulted in significant academic loss and therefore keeping in mind the interest of the students and to mitigate/compensate the impact of this closure all private and government secondary and senior secondary schools in the state are advised to conduct online class for classes IX, X, XI & XII respectively whenever possible during this closure period,” the department said in a circular on Monday.
The Sikkim government had initially shut down schools for four days after the October 4 flash floods that wrecked large-scale devastation in the mountain state.
The closure was later extended to October 15 and all government and private schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions was brought under the order. (PTI)
