4 days later,rescuers yet to find way to reach victims

NDRF has rescued one person so far; cant get men,equipment to worst-hit areas as roads blocked

Even as many villages remained cut-off in North Sikkims Lachen,Lachung and Chungthang valley,four days after the earthquake hit the state,the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) was struggling with its efforts to provide relief to the victims.

It is learnt that so far,the 101-strong NDRF team has managed to rescue only one person trapped underneath the debris and set up a first-aid camp at Manul.

The camp has a stock of pain killers,antiseptic and cotton,but nothing to treat fractures,though there are a number of people with broken bones in the area. The lone doctor manning the camp,Abhijit Mukherjee,said that other members have spread out to nearby villages to treat the injured.

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According to Sikkim government sources,the first NDRF team,airlifted from Kolkata on Sunday night,could reach Gangtok only by late Monday night and reached the affected areas on Tuesday almost 48 hours after the quake. In most places it found roads blocked by landslides and was,hence,itself stranded.

After roads could be cleared,they moved in three buses and found it difficult to carry sophisticated equipment for rescue operation.

The Sikkim government convened a special briefing on Tuesday to find out how best the services of the NDRF team could be used. Senior officials attending the briefing said that when asked about the problems the NDRF team was facing,a senior commandant pointed out that it had a specific job mandate rescuing trapped people and had neither training nor equipment to carry out road restoration work to reach the critical zone. Evacuation by helicopters seemed to be the only way out. But not all places could be accessed for lack of landing facilities.

The NDRF commandant rued the fact that in most of the places they did not have a backup support from the local administration. We dont have proper maps, he said,pointing out that during an aerial survey on Tuesday,he was accompanied by a police official who got down at a place mid-way.

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On his return,when a state official wanted to know the ground situation,the commandant could only brief about Chungthang,Lachung and Lachen on one side of Teesta river. When asked about the condition of Jhongu,he denied any knowledge saying that he didnt know that Jhongu was located on the other side of the river.

Adding to such confusion and lack of coordination,are the visits of the VVIPs,with several officials engaged in making arrangements for these visits.