Gangtok: Yong Tshering Lepcha, a farmer, lost 14 kg during fasting for a week in support of Anna Hazare at the Fish Pond area here opposite Paljor Stadium.
He ended his hunger strike on Sunday after, which he marched to M G Marg in the heart of the capital and garlanded the bust of Mahatma Gandhi.
Lepcha, who weighed 84 kg, began the hunger strike on August 20 and saw his body weight drop most drastically in the first three days, when he did not even take water. By the third day he had lost 12 kilos. Since then, he has lost two more kilos and now weighs 70 kg.
Speaking to a news agency on Sunday, Lepcha said, that doctors from STNM Hospital checked on him twice every day. As per the doctors, his blood pressure was normal but the ketone level in his blood had increased.
Doctors told me that, if some complications were detected they would take me to the hospital but I requested them to treat me here itself. I did not want to go to the hospital because that would affect my hunger strike, he said.
When asked about the people’s response here to his expression of support for Anna Hazare, Lepcha expressed his happiness on having received encouragement and support from all over the state with many people visiting him and contacting him over the phone with words of encouragement and support.
"Truth has prevailed over evil and this is how people like Anna Hazare have inspired even a farmer like me. He has touched lakhs of people and I am just one of them, it is just a mere contribution from my side. I could have died for the cause."
PTI
