Skip to main content

Lepchas protest against Dzongu hydro project

By himalayanreview


Environment under threat
Statesman News Service
GANGTOK, July 11: Members of the Lepcha Youth Association (LYA), Kalimpong unit, blocked NH-31A at West Bengal-Sikkim border in Melli for more than two hours today to express their solidarity with activists of the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) who have launched a hunger strike in Gangtok to protest against the upcoming hydroelectric power projects at Dzongu in North Sikkim.
Traffic movement was paralysed on the highway owing to the roadblock. Vehicles remained stranded on the highway in different places.
Mr Ajuk Tamsangmo, chief coordinator of the Lepcha Youth Association, said: “Over 4,300 people from Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Mirik and Bhutan participated in today’s roadblock in a peaceful manner.
The government’s move to start hydel power projects at Dzongu is not acceptable as it would affect the environment in the area and destroy the Lepchas’ creations.”
Members of various organisations, such as the Darjeeling Thong Tsesung (DTT), Darjeeling Primitive Tribes (DPT), Rong Ong Prongzen (ROP) and Teesta Sanga Samiti (TSS) supported the LYA’s agitation today.
“Apart from requesting the Sikkim chief minister and the Governor to withdraw the hydel power projects from Dzongu, we have also written letters to the Prime Minister, the President of India and the United Progressive Alliance chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi,” Mr Tamsangmo, said.
Meanwhile, the hunger strike launched by the Affected Citizens of Teesta members in Gangtok entered its 22nd day today, with no solution in sight.

Lepchas protest against Dzongu hydro project

Environment under threat
Statesman News Service
GANGTOK, July 11: Members of the Lepcha Youth Association (LYA), Kalimpong unit, blocked NH-31A at West Bengal-Sikkim border in Melli for more than two hours today to express their solidarity with activists of the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) who have launched a hunger strike in Gangtok to protest against the upcoming hydroelectric power projects at Dzongu in North Sikkim.
Traffic movement was paralysed on the highway owing to the roadblock. Vehicles remained stranded on the highway in different places.
Mr Ajuk Tamsangmo, chief coordinator of the Lepcha Youth Association, said: “Over 4,300 people from Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Mirik and Bhutan participated in today’s roadblock in a peaceful manner.
The government’s move to start hydel power projects at Dzongu is not acceptable as it would affect the environment in the area and destroy the Lepchas’ creations.”
Members of various organisations, such as the Darjeeling Thong Tsesung (DTT), Darjeeling Primitive Tribes (DPT), Rong Ong Prongzen (ROP) and Teesta Sanga Samiti (TSS) supported the LYA’s agitation today.
“Apart from requesting the Sikkim chief minister and the Governor to withdraw the hydel power projects from Dzongu, we have also written letters to the Prime Minister, the President of India and the United Progressive Alliance chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi,” Mr Tamsangmo, said.
Meanwhile, the hunger strike launched by the Affected Citizens of Teesta members in Gangtok entered its 22nd day today, with no solution in sight.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 18, 2008 4:11 PM

    Yes I storngly Support all the people who are working hard to stop Govt. to committ such crime. Yes its a crime of Nature and also disrespect to someones fith. Lepcha's has the right to Protest and we should move on with it. All the Best to all Lepcha's n specially to the leaders.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rongli my birthplace

By himalayanreview
BY SHITAL PRADHAN A small hamlet in an eastern side Silent raush on its way, The old silk route, More older it look Upon which I stay, Hey that’s Rongli, Rongli my birthplace Years went by, years dried up, Yet the small village is as it was, Silent, peaceful and introvert Today’s picture of Rongli, Houses as station bogie, Looks a cradle, from Chujachen, Upon which the blue sky, As if I can touch thee, Roaring River, As the legend we hear, Still watch with glee, The terror of 1890 somewhat forgotten, Yet another terrorizing moment, 68 was the year… 1968, When sky too wasn’t pleased. That was Rongli, Rongli of the past. Playing along the Baar-Pepal tree, Hiding in the Shivalaya, Watching videos and aloft Is a decent memory, now? Sweet time in treasure, Yet when I am in Rongli, I am happy, in whither sweet. Rongli my birthplace !
10 comments
Read more

India’s illegal occupation of independent Sikkim has to be reversed

By himalayanreview
Extracted from Pakistan Defence India’s “Chief Executive” in Gangtok wrote: “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.” It is also said that the real battle was not between the Chogyal and Kazi Lendup Dorji but between their wives. On one side was Queen Hope Cook, the American wife of the Chogyal and on the other was the Belgian wife of the Kazi, Elisa-Maria Standford. “This was a proxy war between the American and the Belgian,” says former chief minister BB Gurung. But there was a third woman involved: Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker Hope Cook in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangrila. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thic...
19 comments
Read more

The coinage system of Sikkim

By himalayanreview
It is more or less a forgotten part of the development process of the then-small Himalayan kingdom, Sikkim . The introduction of the coinage system in Sikkim ceased the way it started. A study of the coinage system of Sikkim sheds light on the socio-economic and political history of the then-small state. The coins of Sikkim ended the way they appeared; they came from nowhere, and finally, they got lost out in the darkness. A handful of people around Sikkim and in the districts of Darjeeling now have these rare items in their collections. The coin of Sikkim is much sought after by numismatists interested in countries that no longer exist today. Before the British invasion of the land of Sikkim, the capital revenue system was never heard. Sikkim, being an agricultural foreground, had some parts of food grains given to the king as tax. Trade was carried out where things were exchanged between individuals. This system was prevalent even in the mid-19th century; oranges were exchan...
5 comments
Read more