Letter:
‘Poverty in Sikkim drops from 30.9% in 2004 to 13.1% in 2009-10’. This news published in your newspaper on 22 March came as music to my ears. On March 20th, The Statesman had carried the article Poverty down in some states, up in N-E. The moment I read the headline I jumped to the article just to see if Sikkim had joined the league of the poor states in the North East. Thankfully Sikkim did not find a place in the list.
The exclusion of Sikkim can be attributed to the fact that Sikkim is seeing unprecedented growth and development for the last many years. The drop in poverty bears testimony to this fact. The news item says that the percentage of BPL families in Sikkim is half of the national average of 29.8%. The State Government is well within its goal of declaring Sikkim as a poverty free state.
There has been a drop in poverty in both rural and urban areas in Sikkim. This clearly indicates the holistic approach of the State Government towards development and upliftment. Urban areas are doing well in Sikkim due to the opening of numerous industries and the availability of endless opportunities. In rural areas development has been phenomenal. This has been made possible due to the various schemes of the State and the Central Government which are directly aimed at raising the standard of living of the people.
The Planning Commission in its report has said that the Poverty Line will be revised from time to time. Now the only challenge that lies in front of the State Government is to insulate Sikkim from poverty so that the revision does not have any impact and the figure drops further to 0% as envisaged by the State Government.
Jashoda Chettri, Gangtok
The poverty parameters of the Planning Commission itself is faulty.....declaring Rs 28 and Rs 23 person for expenditure is alarming. If seen from this light then I wonder if the statistics showing Sikkim as BPL folks free holds true or not!!! The GOS must be working hard towards making Sikkim a state of plenty, but reality speaks differently...its fine till one is in MG Marg, roaming the Super Market or even the ridge but if u go to the back of the beyond places ...then does it hold true that all households in Sikkim will soon be above the BPL!!!.....one had heard of households where they continue to drink black tea not coz thye are health conscious but they have no option, why do children in the villages run around in ragged clothes with out shoes , even during the harsh winter months!!! I assume the schemes of the Centre and the state are simply making the rich richer and the poor remains where he/she was!!!! Its another matter that numbers say something else....even the Railways it was claimed during Lallu's tenure was doing mightily well but suddenly in about eight years time ...its in the red !! So does one take a hint and lesson from those numbers or do we make our selves gloss over everything that reality is showing and claim that Sikkim is doing great!! By the way kudos to the GOS for all the hard work as enumerated above!!!
ReplyDeleteRecently in the neighbouring state of WB the government has stopped the buying of certain BIG newspapers for govt. libraries and reading rooms. It has also issued a circular stopping 'for the time being' the placing of government advertisements in the smaller local publications.
ReplyDeleteIt is understood that most such publications are sustained by such monies received from the Government.
The money involved (40 lakhs if one believed The Telegraph) is peanuts and will do nothing to fix the WB governments cavernous hole in the budget. So fiscal prudence could hardly be the reason. Sudananda K Datta Ray in his op-ed piece has argued that like other businesses , newspapers too should be able to sustain themselves without looking up to the government for assistance.
The reason why I am making this long winded argument is because of what I notice in Sikkim. Here newspapers exist not for the sake of journalism or readership but solely to obtain advertisements from the Government agencies responsible for such doles. There is a quid pro co at work here because as everyone knows there is no such thing as a free lunch.
However in Sikkim this seems to be dragged to lower depths. For proof one has to read the letters from readers.
It is as if it wasn't enough for the editors to extol the virtues of the incumbent government or treat some of its inadequacies with kids gloves.
The sycophancy has to extend even to the letters from the readers pages.
sure thats what i have noticed and u have hit the nail on the head!!! and if some one write anything different ...they are up against him! u should try getting into some sikkim groups on social networking sites and see the level ppl go to in the above activity!!!!!
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