DAY 4 OF HIGHWAY BANDH: 92-vehicle convoy leaves for Siliguri

GANGTOK, 12 Feb: With the indefinite bandh underway in the Darjeeling hills showing no signs of letting up, and no clear indication arriving on Sikkim traffic along National Highway 31A [in portions which pass through Darjeeling district] being exempted, the size of convoys moving out of Rangpo for Siliguri under police escort is increasing. At 10:30 a.m. this morning, a 92-vehicle convoy left Rangpo, the largest convoy yet in the latest phase of Darjeeling bandhs.

P.I., Rangpo, Sonam Wangdi, while speaking to NOW! over the phone, confirmed that this convoy was seen off from Rangpo under a West Bengal Police escort. The convoy included 32 SNT buses, 7 SNT trucks, two tankers and 53 light vehicles [private and jeep services].
At the time of the filing of this report, no vehicles had come in from Siliguri but a convoy is expected to reach Rangpo [from Siliguri] by 3:30 p.m. This convoy is expected to have at least 50 vehicles, although this remains unconfirmed.
While only SNT vehicles were being allowed through, yesterday, a group of private vehicles also joined the convoy and having made it through without incident, more vehicles attempted the journey today.
Meanwhile, when asked about incidents of stone-pelting reported by some commuters, the PI informed that the only such incident was reported the day before [10 Feb], when two private vehicles were targeted with stone-pelting in the stretch between Melli to Rangpo. The vehicles suffered minor damage like cracked windshields and dented body-work and no one was injured, the police official informs.
[ANAND OBEROI]source;Sikkim Now