Sikkim Herald

Gyalshing, 5th December, 2019 (IPR): The Hon’ble Minister for Public Works and Culture Affairs & Heritage Department Shri. Samdup Lepcha who was on a 2 days visit to West Sikkim visited the various ongoing roads constructions and concluded his visit today. He was accompanied by Additional Chief Engineer (ACE) Shri Thupden G. Bhutia along with Divisional Engineer (DE) Roads Shri. Phurba Bhutia; Assistant Engineer (AE) Shri. R. D. Lepcha, Panchayats and other Departmental Officials.
Shri. Samdup Lepcha initially visited the Chagay Falls where he instructed the contractor to immediately resume the work of the construction of the bridge which has been pending for a long time and urged the ACE Roads and DE Roads to take note of the progress and keep him updated. He also gave stern directions to the contractor that the work needs to be resumed immediately as it is hampering the public. He then proceeded towards the Som Slide where he met the residents of the affected area and urged the Roads Department to work more progressively towards complete restoration of the Som area. He then inspected the roads condition from Dentam to Uttarey to Chiwa Bhanjayang and in a similar manner asked the contractor present to resume and complete his work at the earliest. He emphasized on the importance of the road connectivity and its valuable impact on rural and international tourism which needs to be seen and understood by the contractor and needs to take up the work as soon as possible. He also mentioned that the department is willing to help them if they are willing to finish the work as early as possible. He also met with the Panchayats of Sopakha GPU who placed their grievances which was heard by the Hon’ble Minister in relation to the conditions of road connectivity of their respective areas.

The Minister expressed his gratitude towards the PWD Officials of West for their tireless efforts in maintaining the road conditions of West Sikkim and urged them to continue working in a similar fashion. He also mentioned that the State Government is continuously working for the people’s benefit and will try to do more with the cooperation of the State and District Officials.

Similarly, on the first day of his visit i. e 4th December, 2019 (Wednesday) the Hon’ble Minister PWD visited the Chenrezig Singkham Riwo Potala where he chaired the meeting of the Governing and Managing Committee of Chenrezig Singkham Riwo Potala along with the DC West, ADC West and the Officials of the Culture Department. He also inspected the area and interacted with the District Officials and the Committee.

Gyalshing, 5th December 2019 (IPR): A joint inspection was carried out by the District Collector, West, Shri. Karma R. Bonpo, IAS alongwith all the heads of the various departments for the development of Gyalshing Municipal Council and its adjoining areas today.

While in inspection process DC instructed PHE department to streamline all the scattered drinking water pipeline of bazar areas blocking the jhoras. The land behind District hospital for road connectivity was also inspected to reduce the traffic congestion in the junction of the market. He also directed concern departments and officers to verify the feasible land in around gyalshing for the construction of an officers club. DC also inspected the vacant land beside RTO office for the construction of Police station . For the alternative road from Bhanu Salig to ITI Gyalshing, DC had a discussion with the PW department and instructed to submit the report on its flexibility .

Gangtok, Dec 4, (IPR) : The 35th Conference on Disaster Risk Industrial Safety and Emergency Preparedness under Chemical and Industrial Disaster Management (CIDM) 2019 was held at Chintan Bhawan, here today.
The two days conference is organised by Chemical and Industrial Disaster Management Board (CIDM) in in collaboration with Land Revenue and Disaster Management Department,Government of Sikkim.

The conference is themed as ” Major Initiatives in the North East towards Disaster Resilience”.

Shri Kunga Nima Lepcha,Minister for Land Revenue & Disaster Management(LRDM), Education, Law and Sports & Youth Affairs Department, Ms Ambika Pradhan, Relief Commissioner cum Secretary, LRDM, Advisors to HCM Shri T. N Dhakal, Shri Vishnu Khatiwara, Shri L.Mansingh, IAS(Retd ), Shri Rubaab Sood,Additional Director & Head,Disaster Management Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Dr Muzaffar Ahmad,Former Member,National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), including senior secretaries, delegates,panelists and representatives from NDMA, Indian Railways, OIST, Air India, Indian Coast Guard, ONGC, NDRF, public and corporate undertakings attended the conference at large.

The main focus of the proposed conference and exhibition is to make the industry globally safe by better emergency planning of accidents onsite, offsite including isolated storage’s. The conference would also provide a platform to national and International companies to share their success stories, best practices and technologies to minimize accidents on production sites and during transportation of chemicals and hazardous wastes.

The conference will provide opportunity of hands on training & capacity development of on-site and off-site res-ponders,medics,paramedics during emergency.

In his inaugural address,Shri Kunga Nima Lepcha expressed his sincere gratitude to all the panelists, dignitaries, officers, media personnel’s and other participants in attendance.

He stated “The two days programme has been organised basically to discuss the various kinds of disasters, both natural as well as man-made in nature in our state(Sikkim) which it is highly susceptible to, and the kinds of preventive measures and necessary precautions that we can take up so as to avert the same”.

The Minister, in his address, also mentioned about the imperils of man-made disaster by alluding to the tragic chemical plant incident now notoriously dubbed as ‘the Bhopal gas tragedy.’

He further said ” Students need to be properly educated in this aspect. Interactive sessions between field experts and students must be included in the school curriculum. A person’s capability to deal with unforeseen emergencies in the face of disasters depends upon his ability to be prepared ahead of time” he added.

In his concluding message, he welcomed all the stakeholders to find a common ground so that they can work together in common interest towards disaster resilience.

Earlier, in her key note address, Smt Ambika Pradhan, Secretary, heartily thanked the Hon’ble Minister and heartily extended a warm welcome to all the guests from Govt of India and representatives from the public and corporate undertakings. She gladly mentioned that this conference is the first of its kind to be organised in the state.

She highlighted that it was imperative to develop preventive measures such as adoption of safer engineering measures and practices for the mitigation of disasters in the state.

Earlier,Shri L. Mansingh IAS (Retd) speaking before the gathering mentioned that Sikkim is a small state and is developing as a region in the industrial and technological sector.He stressed that rapid industrialization could increase hazards and risk vulnerability to the environment therefore he suggested the need to adopt preventive measures and stressed on preparedness in the event of unforeseen eventualities.

The plenary session was divided into two technical sessions and was presided over by Shri S. D Negi , Principal Secretary, Labour Department.

The first session included panel discussions on Disaster Management Training,Mitigation and Response in which various topics on waste management of chemical hazardous materials,prevention of disastrous situations in steel plants,off-site emergency disaster plants,safety of people and assets working in Environments containing inflammable liquids and gases,etc.

A broad range of contents from keynotes and panel discussions on Disaster Risk Management and Reduction and use of technology to mitigate disasters were covered during second technical session.
Panel discussions on the use of GIS Technology for Risk Reduction,use of technology in Process Safety Management, application of Scientific Modelling Techniques in Disaster Risk Reduction,Management Infrastructures, safety measures and challenges of Pharmaceutical Industries in Sikkim were included in the session.

Finally,the first day of the technical programme concluded with the questions and answers session among the participants at large.

GANGTOK, 04 Dec: Grace Foundation emerged as the champion of the Phoenix Cup 2019, an Inter-Rehab Centre Football Tournament, played here at Paljor Stadium. In the final match played this afternoon, Grace Foundation defeated Freedom Facility in the tie-breaker to lift the champions’ trophy.

The tournament was organized by Social Justice & Welfare Department. A total of eleven rehab centers from different parts of the State had participated in the tournament.

The final match has the Minister to Social Justice & Welfare Department, Dr MK Sharma as the chief guest. He was also accompanied by Secretary to SJWD, Dhan Jyoti Mukhia, Secretary to Sports & Youth Affairs Department, Kuber Bhandari among other dignitaries.

The full time of the match ended 2-2 draw. The match entered into the tie-breaker through penalty shoot-out, in which Grace Foundation converted four shots into goals and Freedom Facility managed to scored just two goals. Rewaj Lucksom adjudged as the Man of the Match.

The chief guest has handed over medals, trophies and cash prizes to winning and runners-up team. The winning team received the cash prize of Rs 10,000, while Rs 5,000 given to runners-up team.

Gyalshing, 4th December, 2019 (IPR): A Mock Exercise on Earthquake in relation to the Disaster preparedness in the West District was conducted in Gyalshing today under the direction of the DC West Shri. Karma R. Bonpo and ADC West Shri. Karma Lodey Lepcha along Shri. Tushar G. Nikhare, SDM (HQ) along with ASP West Shri. PVG Satish; SDPO Gyalshing Shri. Nakul Pradhan and Shri. Nirupesh Kumar Dy. Commandent (36th Battalion SSB). The mock exercise was a simulation scenario of an Earthquake in Gyalshing. The entire mock exercise was conducted at 5 different locations of Gyalshing which was conducted in order to sensitize and create awareness to the public during similar situations.
The District Control Room for the West District was at DAC Conference Hall, Rabdentse where all the HODs of Line departments were stationed and the mock exercise began at 11:15 am sharp. Prior to the Mock Exercise, a table top exercise was also conducted at the DAC Conference hall on 3rd December, 2019.
During the exercise a scenario depicting an earthquake magnitude of 6.7 RS at Gyalshing was taken into account. An Emergency Control Room was set up at DAC Conference Hall where in all HoDs reported within 15 minutes of the earthquake striking, simultaneously the public were made aware of the mock exercise through siren and PA system of Fire and Police Personnel. A staging area at Kyongsa ground was set up by 11:45 am wherein personnel from SSB and IRB along with the volunteers from NYK and ITI Gyalshing were stationed. The SSB installed 3 tents immediately at the staging areas after their arrival. The entire DAC was evacuated within 10 minutes after the earthquake and two trapped/injured persons were also rescued and treated at the spot.
A team in the District Control Room had the SDM (HQ) as the Incident Commander, ASP West as the Operation Section Chief, SDM Soreng as Observer, DPO (Disaster Management) as the Coordinator, DPO Zilla as the Liaison Officer, ADC Dev. as the Planning Section Chief, Sr. A.O as the Finance Chief, DCSO as the Logistic Chief, SDPO Gyalshing as the Safety, Law and Order Officer, DIO (IPR) as Information and Media Officer. The Staging Area was headed by BDO Gyalshing and the staging area also had a medical officer and health staffs to give the necessary aid.
During the Mock Exercise various scenarios were depicted wherein a fallen tree near Tigjuk Phatak blocking the traffic was shown which was cleared by the Forest Department, a fire had broken out at the Zilla Bhawan and a section of wall housing had toppled and were shown to be partially damaged at ITI Gyalshing where later the rescue team deputed by the District Control Room to carry out the necessary actions of safety were sent. It was also shown that few staffs were feared to be trapped at the DAC who were also rescued by the volunteers. Information of patients pouring in was also received from the hospital who were treated. The dedicated task force were deployed to the aforementioned locations and were successful to bring the situation under control within 20 to 25 minutes of their arrival at the spot.
From the 5 scenarios 6 moderately injured and 2 minor injuries were reported. For all these patients first aid was administered at site after which they were sent to the nearest hospital for treatment. The blocked road was cleared by cutting the tree by the Forest Department team. A minor damage were reported by the Power and PHE Department which were restored.
The Mock exercise was conducted to see the coordination among the different departments and the ground staffs to make the functioning of the relief and rescue operation faster, efficient and reliable in times of real time disasters.