Baichung Bhutia launches campaign to help flood-affected people

Siliguri: Bhaichung Bhutia, the former captain of the Indian Football team and the president of Hamro Sikkim Party, expressed concerns about the Sikkim incident in Siliguri. He said that the cause of the incident should be looked at ground level, as there are more lakes in Sikkim which are in a risky situation.

“The incident was a warning. The cause should be investigated deeply. There are more lakes in Sikkim which may create another disaster in the future. Therefore, the administration and people all need to be careful enough,” said Bhaichung Bhutia.

One of the lakes which is at risk is Shako Cho glacial lake in Sikkim. With the aim of helping the Teesta flood-affected people of Sikkim and Bengal, Bhaichung has launched a campaign ‘Play For Teesta’. With this campaign, he urged every sports person to organise charitable games and donate funds or relief materials for the affected people.

The Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT) is co-ordinating the entire process. The campaign was launched on Sunday at ‘Sunday Haat’ in Siliguri. On this day, Bhaichung Bhutiya handed over a cheque to Raj Basu, the convenor of ACT for the flood-affected people.

“The way explosives are being recovered one after another, we need to work more carefully. Many things are still not going well. Rs 45 crore allocated by the Central government for Sikkim is not enough, but I think more help will come. Many tourists are still trapped. Rescuing them should be the main objective,” he further said.