Sikkim chief minister P.S. Tamang (Golay) on Wednesday said his government would constitute a development board for backward villages and a welfare board for drivers as the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) appeared to roll up its sleeves for the Assembly elections due in less than 18 months’ time.
Addressing the SKM’s 14th Rholu Diwas programme in south Sikkim, Golay, who is also the party president, said there were many villages in the state which continued to remain underdeveloped and the proposed board headed by a chairman would oversee their speedy development with the help of experts.
“We will earmark between Rs 1 crore and Rs Rs 5 crore every year for those villages,” he said.
On the welfare board for the drivers, Golay said the government had already earmarked funds for it. “Please make the board yourselves (read drivers) by January 15.... You elect your own chairman. Don’t ask me to do so,” he said, adding the board would help the drivers during their time of need — from medical treatment to the construction of houses.
Golay also said the government was thinking about reverting to the Old Pension Scheme, a demand voiced by 28,000 state government employees. “We had formed a committee on December 10 and it will submit its report within three months,” he said.
The chief minister announced the raising of the retirement age of State Bank of Sikkim (SBS) employees from 58 to 60. Hundreds of employees are at SBS, which is an autonomous body under the government of Sikkim and, unlike other banks in the country, not regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.
Golay expressed the confidence that his party would come back to power in 2024 on a day when 150 persons, including two former MLAs of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), joined the SKM. “We want to form a strong government in 2024,” he said while dismissing the SDF as a spent force.
The SKM celebrates December 21 as Rholu Diwas to mark the day in 2009 when Golay first raised his voice against the leadership of then chief minister and SDF president Pawan Chamling while still being in the SDF as an MLA. Golay eventually quit the SDF in September 2013, seven months after he had launched the SKM.
