Sikkim traffic police to observe 23rd National Road Safety Week Called "Khulla Manch": Press Club of Sikkim

 Pappu Mallick

GANGTOK, MAY 2: The Press Club of Sikkim in collaboration with the Office of the Superintendent of Police( East)  today organized an open forum debate called "Khulla Manch" at M.G Marg. The program is one of the activities of Sikkim traffic police to observe 23rd National Road Safety Week.  It  was participated  by various localities to pose the questions concerning their problems related to the traffic in the city. The panel consisted of the state authorities like, K.N Topgey (Mayor, Sikkim Municipal Corporation), Shakti Singh (Deputy Mayor),  P.K Basnet (Senior R.T.O),Mandeep Singh (Senior S.P), Sonam Bhutia (D.S.P Traffic), Ongmu Bhutia (S.D.P.O) and Snadhya Prasad (Councellor) who  answered the queries pertaining to the traffic related issues.  There were many questions asked to which some solution were provided on spot and some have been promised to be solved. 

Some of the main issues discussed were the increasing number of the vehicles in the city and less space to park them, the fake West Bengal licenses used by the drivers, parking of VIP and Official vehicles in front of tourism department which hinders the flow of traffic, unstable hike in the taxi fare at peak hours and others.
 The Mayor also informed of establishing ropeways from Gangtok to places like Ranipool and Sichey with a minimum fare between 10 to 15 rupees to reduce the number of people travelling by cars. Some of the authorities also stated that there is difference between the day and night taxi fares in the cities of other countries but not India, not knowing that Mumbai follows this tariff rule after midnight.