The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) today provided thermal scanners to all health centres in 86 tea gardens in the hills, while it has also decided to start a community kitchen in Kalimpong to feed all frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19.

“My immediate concern is the people living in tea gardens. We sent thermal scanners to all dispensaries and health care centres in the 85 tea gardens in the GTA region today. “These thermal scanners would also be sent to all closed tea gardens under the GTA,” Mr Thapa said in a press release from Kalimpong where he is currently overseeing and coordinating preparations to fight the novel coronavirus.

“Our second initiative was to start a community kitchen in Kalimpong. which is being done to feed all frontline workers in Kalimpong. “The food from this kitchen will feed the people at quarantine centres, the police on duty, personnel from various departments on duty and workers from NGOs. The kitchen will also feed daily wage earners who are facing a lot of peoblems,” Mr Thapa said, adding that the kitchen will be set up at the Mela ground with cooked food to be supplied from there.

According to him, he had been supervising work of setting up a new quarantine centre, which will be functional in the next two days.

“Kalimpong has become the epicentre of COVID-19 in North Bengal, and I have been camping in Kalimpong and implementing the right initiatives in combating the transmission of the virus. If we fail to break this chain here, the entire hills will be in trouble. I once again appeal to the people to not come out of their houses unnecessarily as the threat of covid is real and has already proved fatal as we have lost one person from Kalimpong,” he said.

Morcha to shut Darj shops after 12

The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha’s (Binoy Tamang camp) Darjeeling Town Committee has decided to shut all shops in the town area in Darjeeling after 12 noon, while also not allowing shops to sell meat and fish even in the morning. The Morcha said that the step was being taken to lessen the crowd in Darjeeling town, where many people are seen violating the lockdown orders and roaming around without any reason.

“Even though only shops selling essential commodities are open at present, people are coming to town without any work or concrete reason. So to lessen this, we appeal to all shopkeepers selling such commodities to open their shops from 7 am to 12 noon only.

“This also includes medicine shops in the town area. Only medicine shops around the hospitals here will remain open for the whole day,” Morcha leader Suraj Sharma said today. “We request the people to stay home and maintain social distancing and not come out if they have no important work.

“Moreover, they can also buy stuff like vegetables and other essential goods in shops in their areas,” he added. The Morcha also maintained that a maximum crowd was seen in meat and fish shops, which will remain closed from tomorrow onwards. In the morning, only shops selling essential commodities like vegetables, medicine shops, ration, fruits, milk, among others, will remain open, the party said.