Pawan Chamling 's Effigy Burnt in Sikkim

Gangtok , Sikkim : After the governor, it is the turn of Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling to feel the heat of Opposition protests.

Members of Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad — a regional party in the state — today dodged the police and burnt the effigy of the chief minister. They were protesting against alleged efforts by the government to suppress the Opposition and its failure to resolve the crisis over the setting up of hydel projects in the Lepcha reserve of Dzongu. Nine Parishad members were arrested in this connection.

Last Saturday, Congress supporters had burnt the effigy of governor V. Rama Rao over similar allegations.

Police had prior information of today’s programme and had made elaborate plans to prevent it. A large police contingent was stationed outside the party headquarters at Tadong. The site was about 800m from Sikkim Government College where Chamling was attending the celebrations of Tendong Lho Rum faat, a Lepcha festival.

Parishad supporters, however, successfully torched the effigy at Deorali some 1.5km above Tadong. The protesters, led by Bhim Chettri, the publicity secretary of the party, shouted slogans against the chief minister and the governor during the episode.

“Nine persons have been arrested for causing nuisance on the highway and disrupting traffic. They have been booked under Section 34 of the IPC,” said M.S. Tuli, the superintendent of police (east).

At the Lepcha festival Chamling hit out at the Opposition accusing them of using the protest by Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) as a political tool to mislead the people.

Sikkim Congress president Nar Bahadur Bhandari retaliated by alleging that the government had failed to resolve the crisis over the hydel power projects and criticised the governor and the chief minister for not meeting the fasting ACT members.

The 21 Congress supporters who courted arrest yesterday and the four picked up earlier in connection with the burning of the governor’s effigy have been produced in court and remanded in judicial custody for 15 days. They were sent to the state jail at Rongyek, yesterday.

Source: The Telegraph