Villagers assemble at Tung from remote quake-hit areas

Hundreds of villagers from inaccessible areas of quake-hit Lachung, Lachen and Chungthang, have gathered here while 22 engineers of a private construction firm have been rescued and will be sent to Gangtok today.

Army sources said hundreds of villagers have reached Tung, 10 km down Chungthang, one of the worst-hit areas, and many were still trekking down from remote areas of Lachen, Lachung and Chungthang.

Karma Bhutia (30), who arrived from Lachen today after trekking for two days, told PTI, "We panicked at fresh landslides triggered by rain at Lachen on Wednesday night, when huge boulders started hurtling down the hills."

"We first escaped to Guma and spent the night there and next morning we started trekking through extremely difficult terrains covered with debris," he said.

Army sources said 22 engineers and technicians of Poddar Construction, engaged by the Teesta Urja Project, were rescued from Tung, five days after their bus was stranded during the powerful tremor in Sikkim.

"Their bus was halted by a huge boulder and our men rescued them from Tung yesterday. They will be sent to Gangtok today," they said.

According to project manager of Poddar construction Bipul Halder, "The situation is very bad. We were stranded and could not come out of the bus. We had to sustain with the little ration left with us."

Labourers returning to Gangtok from Teesta Stage III hydel project site at Chungthang in worst-hit North District today claimed that 70 of their colleagues were still missing.

A group of labourers belonging to Euphoria, one of the several companies engaged by Teesta-Urja, returned to Gangtok last evening.

They said there were 5,000 people still at Chungthang including labourers and project officials and many bodies were trapped under the debris.

However, neither the North District administration nor Teesta-Urja has confirmed their account.

The labourers said nearly all houses at Chungthang were damaged and there was no drinking water available in the area.

Affirming that they were fortunate at not being inside the tunnels on the fateful day, the labourers said had we been working in the tunnel, we would all have been washed away.

They also claimed bodies of 12 company 'officials' from south India were cremated at Chungthang.

A team of National Disaster Relief Force today took some sniffer dogs to Tung to locate if anyone was trapped under collapsed houses.

Villagers were also reported to have been gathering at a NGO relief camp at Naga, 1km away.

Meanwhile, personnel of the Army Engineering Regiment continued to clear roads between Tung and Chungthang. Bulldozers, payloaders and excavators have been deployed to clear roads in affected areas of North Sikkim.