Water crisis hit Gangtok

Gangtok, June 16 (UNI) People here have been facing acute water crisis for more than a week after pipelines carrying water to the town from Ratey Chu, the main source of water, were damaged in a landslide.

Public Health Engineering Department sources here said they failed to restore the pipelines due to heavy rainfall during the last few days.

People were seen collecting water either from streams or from water tanks put at certain PLACES by some NGOs and voluntary agencies. Some people were also collecting rain water.

The water crisis also affected the hotel business. '' I turned down many tourists as we do not have enough water to meet their requirements,'' said a hotelier.

Alok, a resident of the Development area, said '' I am spending around Rs 50 on an average everyday since the crisis arose to get water.'' Gangtok MLA N K Pradhan and PHED authorities appealed to the people to cooperate with the government.

Opposition Congress party demanded the government to handover the restoration of water pipelines to the army engineers for early restoration of water.

Meanwhile, the state unit of the BJP condemned the inaction of the state government in solving the problem even ten days after the landslide.

UNI BD KK MSJ ND1728