Sikkim Chief minister Pawan Chamling wants the Centre to think of rewarding well-administered states and penalising those that aren’t. He feels just the opposite happens now.
“Sikkim has shown that a border state can be peaceful,” the chief minister told reporters on Thursday. “This is our achievement and we did it without the support of the central government.”
He said all government schemes in the state were tourism-related. Tourism has seen consistent growth since his party came to power — the number of tourists having gone up from 40,000 to 3 lakh annually. Chamling, however, wants the Centre to meet the priority demands of his state: an airport, a rail link and at least a two-lane national highway to Gangtok.
“Sometimes we feel we have been ignored,” he said. “Even small party workers — of different Central governments — have troubled us, saying it was their party which was at the Centre. I don’t want any favours from the Central government but justice.”
The CM has misgivings about how Sikkim hasn’t got deserved recognition at the national level. “There has been no central minister from here. No governor, no judge, no Planning Commission member... no constitutional post.” He also said a lot needs to change in India, especially the politicians. “I don’t think the country can run the way it is running,” he said.