The situation is dire, with two iron bridges collapsed, several roads damaged and flooded, and huge tracts of land inundated in the districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, and Alipurduar.
The nightmare of travelling on national highway 10 (NH-10), the only arterial road linking Sikkim and Kalimpong with Siliguri, continues to haunt commuters.
A wet Thursday morning set the tone for what promises to be a rain-drenched next few days, with the regional Met office forecasting continued showers, gusty winds and potential disruptions across both south and north Bengal.
Inspired by India’s first Digital Nomad Village, recently launched in Sikkim’s Yakten, stakeholders in north Bengal’s tourism industry have begun exploring similar possibilities across the region.
Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Tamang (Golay) visited Kalimpong on Friday to pay his respects to the late Gyalo Thondup, elder brother of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has planned to appeal to the state government to change the dates of the lockdown in the interest of education tourism centering Siliguri.
"I request all other political parties, including the Trinamul Congress, and their regional alliances to take up the matter with the state government and work towards ensuring that people from our region are not deprived of their legitimate rights to land," Mr Bista said in a release he issued on the eve of Independence Day
It may be mentioned here that the Kalimpong Subdivisional Officer had recently handed down notices to at least 200 families living in forest areas, quashing their claims that they were forest dwellers.
However, according to him, any development work in the area there necessitates 'No Objection Certificates' (NOC) from Gram Sabhas of the respective areas, which, they have not yet issued.
The required staff and nurses have already been appointed there, along with medical officers, nursing officers and paramedics, a team of whom would work for seven days and go into seven days of quarantine, while the other team takes over.
