Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) president Pawan Chamling alleged that the economy of Sikkim was going astray because of the incompetence of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) government, nullifying the gains achieved during his party’s 25-year-old tenure between 1994 and 2019.
In a speech released on SDF’s 30th foundation day on Saturday, Chamling, who had helmed the SDF government for 25 years in the Himalayan state, said when he had taken over the reins, Sikkim’s gross annual budget was a mere Rs 325 crore, and at the time of his leaving office in 2019, it had shot up to Rs 61,000 crore.
“Till today, the government has passed a budget amounting to Rs 52,000 crore for four years. If you were to include the coming budget, it will add up to Rs 62,000 crore... Which means that in Sikkim, in five years, more budget (read money) has been sanctioned and spent on paper and in MB (market to book ratio) than during our 25 years in government, but it does not reflect on the ground,” he said.
Chamling sought to take credit for the economic transformation of Sikkim, and listed certain undisputed claims of his regime’s achievements, including the success of the organic mission, industrialisation, particularly in the pharmaceutical and power generation sectors, and tourism.
“This hydel projects (alone) can turn Sikkim into the country’s highest per capita income state. This is how it can be of help in driving Sikkim’s economy,” he said. Chamling, who Sikkim chief minister P. S. Tamang (Golay) often berates as being uneducated, said:
“When our government came into power, Sikkim’s per capita income was Rs 9,000, when we left the government, the per capita income was Rs 3.41 lakh… This is how we understand what progress is. When we came into power, the GSDP (gross state domestic product) was Rs 439 crore, when we left the government, our Sikkim’s GSDP was 28,000 crore. Can we lie in this manner? It is all in black and white...”
The GSDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the state in a given year.
The SDF didn’t celebrate its foundation day on Saturday, choosing to mark the day as “Shok Diwas” in light of the recent Supreme Court verdict which, it believes, could compromise the very identity of the Sikkimese. Senior SDF leaders said these fears were not being articulated enough in the media.
“Please understand, Article 371F of the Constitution (a special status provided to Sikkim at the time of its merger with India in 1975) is at an unprecedented risk. India should be made aware of this, and not be sold the hunky-dory story narrated by the SKM,” said an SDF leader
