DARJEELING BRIDGE COLLAPSED TOLL RISES TO 32

DARJEELING BRIDGE COLLAPSED

 TOLL RISES TO 32

At least32 people were killed and 130 injured when an overburdened old bridge collapsed in the Bijonbari area of West Bengal's mountain district of Darjeeling Saturday22nd October, 2011. district magistrate Soumitra Mohan said.'It was an old bridge. It was also damaged in the recent earthquake,' said GJM spokesperson and MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri.GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said many were injured, some seriously, when the wooden bridge collapsed. Some people have been rescued by the locals and the administration.'A cultural programme was being held on one side of the bridge while a meeting was being held on the other. Too many people were standing on the bridge when it collapsed and they fell into the river below,' said Giri.

North Bengal Development Minister Goutam Deb has already left for the spot on instruction from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.In Kolkata, the chief minister said the injured were being sent to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital while blood banks had been alerted. 'Ambulances are being rushed. The government will do everything it can,' she said and announced that she would start for the Darjeeling hills immediately, along with Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and Union Minister of State for Health Sudip Bandopadhyay. 'We will try to reach the hills tomorrow.'Expressing shock at the tragedy, Banerjee said the government would bear the cost of the treatment of the injured.Compensation will be paid to the next of kin of the dead.
Banerjee said she would cancel her programmes to inaugurate community Kali Pujas to be with the people of the hills.A defence ministry spokesperson said forty troops of the Army's Mountain Brigade have been rushed to the site with medical and nursing officials following a request from the district magistrate With the recovery of five more bodies, the death toll in the bridge collapse in this north Bengal district has shot up to 32, besides leaving 132 injured, a district official said Sunday.The overburdened British-era wooden suspension bridge on Little Rangeet river in Bijonbari - headquarters of the Darjeeling Pulbazar development block - gave way Saturday evening as over 200 people stood on it to listen to speeches of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders like Bimal Gurung in the area, 30 km from Dargeeling town.The bridge fell along with those on it 70 feet down into a gorge and the river.Around 50-60 people have been rescued by the locals, army, fire brigade personnel and the police, said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri. Rescue operations, which were halted Saturday night, were resumed Sunday morning.
 The injured have been admitted in Bijonbari and Darjeeling hospitals.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is slated to reach the spot in the afternoon in a flight from Kolkata."The government will do everything it can," the chief minister said in Kolkata, expressing shock at the tragedy.She said the government would bear the cost of the treatment of the injured and pay compensation to the next of kin of the dead.Banerjee said she would cancel her programmes to inaugurate community Kali Pujas to be with the people of the hills.A defence ministry spokesperson said 40 troops of the army's Mountain Brigade have been rushed to the site with medical and nursing officials after a request from the district magistrate.

                                                                               Prof. John Kurakar