The vehicle was part of a three-vehicle convoy that was driving from Chatten in the morning towards Thangu. Enroute at Zema, the bus came across with an accident.

“A rescue plan was instantly arranged, and 4 wounded soldiers have been air evacuated. Unluckily, three Junior Commissioned Officers and 13 soldiers died due to the injuries sustained in the accident,” the Indian Army told in a statement.

PM Modi and Defence minister Rajnath Singh expressed the grievances on the loss of lives in the accident.

Under the theme ‘Profitability for Humanity’. During the inaugural session, Chamling reiterated Sikkim and its journey as the first organic state of India and also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for pushing the organic agenda on a national level and making it a national program.

Manoj Mishra, director-global projects, iconex exhibitions private limited, also echoed that ‘Profitability for Humanity’ is the only aim of this expo as health is more important for the upcoming generations as people are eating adulterated food due to unawareness. With this exhibition, we want to aware the masses of the benefit of organic foods and promote farmers to do organic farming in the country.”

Dr. Bharat Pathak, National Convenor Ganga Vichar Manch, Namami Gange, said, “there is a need to promote natural farming in the country, rainwater harvesting is necessary, and water conservation promotion is also necessary for natural farming. The Global Organic Expo reiterated the importance of organic farming, as it’s not just important for the health of the people but is also crucial for the health of the planet as a whole.”

Using the handle @pstamang, Shri Tamang Kooed, “I extend my heartiest greetings to the veteran leader and the former Chief Minister of Sikkim Shri BB Gurung on the occasion of his 92nd birthday. May God bless him with sound health, long life and happiness.”

Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder & CEO, Koo, said, “With the Chief Minister’s presence, the people of Sikkim will have an opportunity to interact with their leader and get the latest updates about various initiatives in their mother tongue.” Koo App, which empowers Indians to connect and converse in their native language, is well represented by Chief Ministers of multiple states including CM of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, CM of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma and Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb, amongst others, who actively Koo on people-led initiatives and activities in their respective states.

The report published by Roshan Rai, Priyadarshinee Shrestha, and Rajendra P. Gurung, suggests that only 19 percent felt the ban was highly effective, while 82 percent of the respondents were aware of the existence of the plastic bag ban in their region.

In Bengal, plastic carry bags are banned in Darjeeling and the Sunderbans; While Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, and Uttarakhand have imposed a complete ban on plastic bags. Sikkim had started the banning of plastic in 1998.

“A new line of bags labeled biodegradable, compostable, and oxo-biodegradable contains more plastic. Their use was found to be more in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tripura, and J&K. The survey revealed that thin plastic bags of less than 50 microns are widely found, with 52 percent of respondents indicating this. Single-use plastics, intended to be used only once and thrown away or recycled, like grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups still dominate in terms of presence.

Shopkeepers charging users extra for plastic bags could be a way to discourage their use, but 45 percent of respondents said there were no charges.

On Saturday Harsh Vardhan Shringla spoke on the topic “Region of North East at the core of India’s foreign policy”, a program organized by the Ministry of External Affairs and the International Relations Department of Sikkim University. During this, he spoke to the students and underlined that the North-East region is the gateway to South-East Asia. It connects India to the world’s most economically dynamic and politically important geographical-ASEAN and Indo-Pacific region.

He also described how India and Japan are working together to improve infrastructure and connectivity with neighboring countries under the Indo-Japan Act East Forum, which will directly contribute to the economic development of the Northeast. Through the projects based on connectivity, water, sanitation, forest management and skill development, there will be overall development of this area, which will attract investors as well as provide business and employment opportunities.

The Foreign Secretary announced the launch of the Kanchenjunga Dialogue Track-2 to communicate with neighboring countries such as Nepal and Bhutan, which will help Sikkim to develop as a center of education and knowledge in the Northeast. He asked the students of Sikkim University to participate in the journey of economic development and development of India.

During his visit, Foreign Secretary Shringla also met Governor Ganga Prasad Chaurasia and Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang.

Sikkim State AIDS Control Society (SSACS) has announced the name of the winners of the short film competition held in Gangtok. In the open category, Dilip Rai directed film ‘Jeevan’ came first, Dipankar ratna Sakya directed ‘Pretty Woman’ came second and Biswas Timsina directed ‘Awareness Starts at Home’ came third.

 The winners were announced and awarded Rs. 1 lakh, 70 thousand and 50 thousand respectively. Similarly, ‘A Silent Diary’ directed by Amon Rai came first in the student category, while Kumar Bishwakarma’s ‘HIV sanga ko jiwan’ and Shrishti Pradhan’s ‘Bhagya ko Vidambana’ came first, second and third respectively. A total of 46 films participated in the competition, 33 in the open category and 13 in the student category. Mr. KB Gurung Health department advisor was the Chief Guest. The competition was judged by CL Ghimire, CP Giri, Dipendra Mohora and Dr. Sirjan Gurung.

Commenting on the partnership initiative, Mr Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs and Partnerships, Reckitt Benckiser Health AMESA said, “Education is the catalyst to social change and one of the most critical areas of empowerment for children. India needs to focus on comprehensive education which includes life skills as an important part of the holistic curriculum. Currently, it is not a part of the usual school curriculum and most schools, teachers and parents are not qualified to provide the required information to children. With the focus towards betterment of children, we are proud & honoured to embark this partnership with the Government of Sikkim to launch BBT, a comprehensive life skill program for adolescent children. Through this curriculum, we aim at creating awareness around the importance of life skills so that every adolescent grows up in a protected environment.”

The Birds and Bees Talk program will be executed and implemented across Sikkim in government and recognized private schools. Sikkim is an ideal state to kick-start this program in the North East as the education policy in the state is reformative. Interestingly, the curriculum is in alignment with the National Curriculum Framework and the recently announced New Education Policy 2020. Under this curriculum, teachers from the enrolled schools will be appointed & equipped with full program essentials including teaching methods & lessons. The training of these teachers will begin shortly to help them better train kids. The unique design of the program comprises of 27-hour lessons allowing the schools to teach in a staggered format, spread over the year.

Going above and beyond, field personnel of Indus Towers took continuous and conscious efforts, despite the difficult terrain, weather, restriction in movement and power challenges to keep the telecom infrastructure operating by restoring services in the shortest time possible, wherever maintenance was required.

Sonam Tashi Wangdi, Additional Director, Department of Technology, Government of Sikkim, said, “Mobile services are a lifeline in Sikkim’s mountainous terrain. Now more than ever, people are reliant on phone and internet services to support them with essential services, online schools and college, telemedicine services and generally staying in touch with each other. We appreciate the sincere efforts of Indus Towers team on successfully managing seamless connectivity even during the lockdown owing to COVID-19.

Presence of mobile towers in high altitude places such as Lachung and Lachen has definitely helped the people of the region. These are challenging times for the entire world, here in Gangtok, we are using available technology to assist the people in the area and telecom infrastructure has supported the administration to provide assistance to as many people as possible.”

Neeraj Singh, Circle CEO, West Bengal, Indus Towers said, “The ongoing pandemic is one of the toughest challenges faced by mankind and the need to stay connected during such a crisis cannot be overstated. Mobile connectivity is central to all operations and we are proud of the effort put by our team in keeping Sikkim connected, even in the face of such adversity. Our last mile field team and technicians demonstrated our ethos of ‘Putting India First’ through their tireless efforts to ensure seamless connectivity surmounting unprecedented challenges. Going forward, we will continue to create a robust and efficient telecom infrastructure aligned with our vision of transforming lives by enabling communication.”

Sharing how mobile connectivity helped daily lives of people, Kala Lepcha, the former panchayat of Chungthang, North Sikkim says, “We have a tower in the centre of the market which clearly benefits us immensely especially during the lockdown. We were able to conveniently make online bank transactions, recharge our mobile phones, shop online, and were connected with our loved ones through video calls even during power cuts. This mobile tower is enabling us to continue with our lives despite the COVID-19 situation.”

Recently, Indus Towers has also installed a tower in IIT Kharagpur to enable customers in providing online education to students. Indus has always enabled connectivity in India, in the face of calamitous natural disasters and adversity. At present, the field employees of Indus Towers are enabling seamless 24×7 connectivity for smooth functioning of the essential services as well as the digital operation that are dependent on the company’s infrastructure. The field personnel of Indus Towers have equipped themselves with the necessary safety gear and working round the clock, even in designated hotspot regions. They have ensured continuous functioning of the mobile tower, which is most critical when it comes to enabling seamless connectivity.

China has been amassing troops and fortifying its presence along the LAC since April-May. Twenty soldiers were killed on June 15 in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in violent clashes with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops.

Chinese forces are occupying a considerable area from Finger 4 to 8 near Pangong Tso (lake). The distance between Finger 4-8, the mountainous spurs abutting the lake, is about eight km. The stretch was patrolled both by India and China till May and India considers it to form part of its perception of the LAC.

The standoff at the China border continues even after several rounds of diplomatic and military level talks.

As per the instructions of state government, Plasma Donate Camp
commenced in the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital
(NBMCH) from today.
While Dr Anirban Roy became the first plasma donor in North
Bengal, Siliguri Subdivision Council opposition leader, Kajal
Ghosh also donated his plasma.
According to the doctors, the plasma collected needs to have high
levels of antibodies to be suitable for use as a treatment. To
volunteer as a plasma donor one must be fit and healthy, be aged
17 or over and have a large enough blood volume. Reportedly,
a person who had recovered can donate plasma around 30 to
40 days after testing positive as they would have an adequate
number of antibodies.