Sikkim Legislative Assembly passes State-Budget 2022-23

The Sikkim Legislative Assembly passed the State Budget 2022-23 on Thursday, with Chief Minister P.S. Golay provided a detailed response to queries and issues raised by 15 members of the House.

During the deliberations on the motion of thanks on the Governor's address and the General Budget 2022-23, members including lone opposition MLA Pawan Chamling and BJP MLAs raised numerous questions, recommendations, and complaints.

Golay responded to every point brought by every member in his over three-hour long statement, with the exception of a couple of members who sought for CBI access into Sikkim to investigate corruption charges. We've finished our investigations and will definitely send the CBI in to look into these matters, so don't worry about it, he assured the members.

On the Limboo-Tamang Assembly seat reservation issue, the Chief Minister stated that the SKM government is fully committed to securing seats for the two tribal communities. He stated, "We are working on it and will share the results." He emphasised that the Limboo-Tamang seats could have been secured in 2006 if the SDF government had taken the Delimitation Commission seriously at the time.

The Delimitation Commission then asked the SDF government to undertake a census of the Limboo-Tamang communities in Sikkim and submit a report, according to Golay. The SDF government, on the other hand, did not perform the census and instead wrote to the Delimitation Commission to postpone the subject for a while, he claimed.

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“SDF government created confusion on the seat issue and betrayed the Limboo-Tamang communities. Sometimes they used to give formula of 40 seats and sometimes, 38 seats. The then Chief Minister used to say that the seat matter is a Central subject but then go around saying that his government got the tribal status to the two communities and will also give them the reserved seats,” he said.

In response to the issue of traffic congestion in Gangtok, the Chief Minister stated that the State government has submitted a proposal to the Centre for a ropeway from Ranipool to Gangtok.

He stated that the proposal, which is in the form of a public-private partnership, is nearing completion.

Golay also responded to the members' demands and suggestions. He assured that the State government would address the needs of the various constituencies as submitted by the local legislators.

Concerning concerns that Article 371F was violated by the inclusion of an accused non-local candidate on the recent teachers' interview result list, the Chief Minister stated that he took quick action.

I have directed the department to start an investigation; we are serious about this, he added, adding that the candidate's name appearing on the list does not automatically imply appointment.

He stated that the purported non-local candidate, who passed three layers of examination, may be a domicile holder, since there are many families in Sikkim with Sikkim Subject certificates who are not from the three major ethnic groupings.