Former chief minister and Sikkim Democratic Front president Pawan Chamling on Tuesday expressed regret at the Sikkim government’s alleged neglect of the organic mission.

The organic mission that had catapulted the state to global fame and called for a non-partisan approach to enhance its hard-earned status of being the first fully organic state in the country.

In a message on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of Sikkim officially being recognised as the fully organic state, Chamling said it took years of perseverance and hard work to make organic Sikkim possible.

“Our government took a policy decision to achieve this ambitious goal by adopting a resolution in the legislative Assembly in 2003.… We took a daring stand as a state to formulate the organic policy and set up the necessary system to do what no other state had yet dared to do. Today, our policy has been lauded by the Central government and organisations across the globe,” he said.

Chamling, however, regretted that the present Sikkim Krantikari Morcha government had put the organic mission completely in the backburner.

“The organic mission has been totally wiped out of the government’s vocabulary and state budget. Not a single penny has been allocated towards organic farming. Even more alarming is that chemical fertilizers are being brought into the state and are freely sold in the market,” he alleged.

The former chief minister, under whose 25-year-long stewardship Sikkim had attained the organic status, said he found it odd that the present government was trying to erase the very brand by which Sikkim is acknowledged globally.

“This government does not understand the value of our organic brand. I urge the government to rise above petty politics and continue to do the work which is in the interest of Sikkim and its people, irrespective of whether it is an SDF legacy or not,” he said.

Chamling’s grouse against the government’s lack of interest in sustaining the organic mission was also borne out by the fact that no official function was organised to commemorate the day to celebrate a feat which enjoys both national and global recognition.

On January 18, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had officially declared Sikkim to be the first fully organic state in the country.

Subsequently, global recognition followed in the form One World Award (Grand Prix) by IFOAM-Organics and Rapunzel in 2017 and the Future Policy Gold Award by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2018.