Two Darj hotels offer rooms for returnees

SNS, DARJEELING, 20 MAY 2020: With many from the Hills returning from several places across the country, two hotels in Darjeeling town have offered their rooms to provide free shelter to such returnees until they receive their Covid-19 test results.

The step follows a call made by Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chairman Anit Thapa recently among hotels to come forward for such people as they had been facing lack of spaces to keep them.

"Sudesh Raimajhi and Sangay Tshering Bhutia, who are hotel owners of Sanderling Resort Mall Road and Hotel Rink Heritage in Darjeeling, have come forward to give their hotels for free to provide shelter for those asymptomatic people coming from different states. During this difficult time, our people have shown the spirit of Darjeeling," Mr Thapa said in a Facebook post.

"Both the hotels are providing free stay for the people who are coming from various states. These hotels are only for asymptomatic people who are awaiting their test results," he added.

Those coming back from different places through buses or trains till Siliguri are first taken to a transit station at the Tenzing N rgay Bus terminus by the GTA following which they are taken to transit camps like the one they have opened at the Gorkha Ranga Mancha here.

As throat swab samples of these people are taken at Simulbari in the plains itself, they need a place to stay for a few days until their results are had.

It is then decided whether they will be sent home or a quarantine centre.