Gyaltsen urges people to ignore divisive politics and prioritise development

SDF's constituency level meeting for Syari underway at the Chongey Primary School Ground on 02 Feb 2011

CHONGEY, 02 Feb: Area MLA, Syari, KT Gyaltsen, today urged people of his constituency not to allow communal and sectarian issues to distract them away from the developmental momentum picking up in the constituency in step with the rest of the State. What should concern Syari at present should be the challenge to become a model constituency of Sikkim, he stressed.
Mr Gyaltsen, who is also the Speaker, Sikkim Legislative Assembly, was addressing a the constituency-level meeting of the Sikkim Democratic Front here at Chongey Primary School ground, about half an hour’s drive from Gangtok.

He highlighted that the SDF Government has a perfect election result [secured in the last Assembly elections held in 2009] to attest its pro-people track-record and delivery in Sikkim. What was required now was for the people to join the development initiative as proactive participants of the process, he stressed.
The Speaker, while on political issues, delved on the allegations being leveled against the State Government and the Chief Minister by the parties in Opposition in Sikkim. While accepting that the right to dissent and protest was guaranteed in a democracy, and allowed in Sikkim, he stressed that criticism should be ideologically sound and productive instead of the reactionary rants which define Opposition stands in Sikkim.
There were sections in the Opposition, who, scared by their almost negligible appeal among the people, were fanning paranoia and communal issues in the hope of remaining relevant in the State. Allowing these sections any credibility will compromise development, he contended.
Addressing fellow party members, the area MLA rued that some were only focused on personal benefits and when these were not accommodated, were joining the chorus being raised against the party to the extent that they were even trying to derail people-centric works.
“I am just a medium between the Chief Minister and the people and there to ensure that all benefits and programmes of the government reach the genuine beneficiaries and development impacts the grassroots,” he said.
The meeting was chaired by the SDF vice president [administration], KB Chamling, as the chief guest and included the handing over of solar lamps from SREDA and agricultural tools from the Social Welfare Department to beneficiaries from the constituency.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. KB Chamling detailed the 16 Missions adopted by the SDF government for Sikkim and invited the people to support these missions and ensure their success.
He also assured the people that unlike being projected by the Opposition camp, the Sikkim Subject Certificates were adequately protected and that the issuance of Residential Certificates [to people who have been residing in Sikkim since before 26 April 1975] would not affect the status of Sikkim Subjects in any way.
The meeting was also addressed by SDF vice presidents DT Lepcha and Somnath Poudyal, the party’s East district in-charge JK Bhandari and organization secretary, Kalpana Moktan.
[SAGAR CHHETRI]