Himalayan Times (1950)

Four

PMntalnpart tlfimest

Juno, 18, l<)50

Himalayan (Times

Kalimpong, June IS, Wal).

FACING THE CALAMITY

"J*he whole of Darjeeling district
to-day is in the grips of a very serious
calamity. Land.slides caused due to very
heavy rains early this week has cut off the
district from the rest of the world and
since the exact extent of the damage is
"not yet fully known we can not say with
any amount of certainty what .time it
would take for the usual communication to
be restored.

The havoc has been created by
nature and we have to submit to the in-
evitable but, we must guard ourselves
against future miseries. Already a rising
price tendency has been marked in the
food and vegitable.market which should be
controlled- at all cost. The price index-
must be maintained at the normal level to
ensure smootlj running of normal life and
on no'account should the opportunists be
allowed to take advantage of the disloca-
tion cf all communications. It is the work,
of the civil authorities and they would be
well advised to take up the matter imme-
diately—we say immedintely lest it may
be too laie to detect bags of food grain
responding to the mysterious touch of the
migicians wand.

. * The people at the same time have no
need to be panicky. ' Whatever the diffi-
culty, our government will leave nothing
undone to nee that proper arrangements
are made to feed and, clothe the people.
It is really fortunate that His Excellency

. Dr. K. N. Katju, the Governor of West
Bengal is at present Btaying at Darjeeling.
He will be seeing things for himself, possi-
bly he may be moved to the extent of
making a tour of the affected areas, and

there is not the least doubt that His Ex-
cellency, whose interest in the well being
of the people of the Darjeeling Hills ha*
always been very keen, will expedite the
! restoration of normal conditions here.

With the dislocation of postal, tele,
graphic and telephone services, the (Jo-
vernment owned Radio 'ram station is the
only, source of communication with the out
side world and although it will not be
possible for the government to declare it
open to the public, it could certainly be
utilised for really important communica-
tions by the I'ress and the Relief Commi-
ttee so that our sympathisers out side the
district may constantly be kept in touch
with the situations at this end.

Public sympathy for the displaced
persons is available in abundance and the
relief work that is being done, atleast in
Kalimpong is praisworthy but departmental
work of the Government must immediately
be co-ordinated to facilitate solution of the
grave problems that face us. All essential
services depend on Government help.
There is not enough fuel with the (Electric
Supply Co., here to supply normal light to
the town for more than fifteen days; there
is net much of petrol in the town and there
is hardly enough food grains for more than
a fortnight and it is hoped that ;no time
will be lost by the Government to \ dig out
passes through the fallen rocks, trees, earth
and the debries to cause improvised path- .
ways for postal anil ration movements.
The district administration is on the anvil
and their worth is exposed to the severest
test of the times.

- FfSr the successful performance, of
any act by any government public sym-
pathy and co operation is very essential
and we appeal to all section of the people
to strengthen the hands of our administra-
tors here to cable them to cope with the
situation in the manner it desorves. We.,
must remain united to be able to Stand up
against, the faco of any . calamity lest,
divided, we fall. \