Sikkim Spring Carnival, May 11-15, 2012

Paljor Stadium

Gangtok

Speech delivered by Hon’ble Chief Minister

Respected Maj. Gen. V.N. Prasad ji, Cabinet Colleagues, MLAs, Chief Secretary, distinguished guests, visiting tourists, friends from media, beloved students, ladies and gentlemen

Today I am very happy to be present at the Sikkim Spring Carnival. This is an opportunity for all of us to recall our efforts in promoting tourism in the State. At this occasion, we are happy with the presence of our Army. We are land locked State, surrounded by three international borders in three sides. We have limited development options.  Most of our geography consists of hilly terrain, forest, alpine area, barren land, glacier, rivers and streams hosting five climatic zones within a distance of 114 km from South to North. Under this natural environment, Eco-Tourism has been developed as one of the means of translating our locational disadvantage into our strengths. We are improving our connectivity with our Airport in Pakyong to be ready by the end of 2013 and railhead upto Rangpo which is in the survey stage of the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.

Ladies and gentlemen, you will agree with me that we have some unique advantages, our forte, that help in promotion of tourism sector as a long term investment.

(1)                         You will see that Sikkim is nothing but nature with over 86 percent of land under green cover. We are one of the 18 Biodiversity Hotspots in the world and single major custodian of some rare species of flora and fauna found in the Country.

(2)                         And secondly, in a widely conflicting world with widespread socio-cultural and political upheaval, Sikkim is an exception promoting peace and harmony rarely to be found in the world.

(3)                         Hospitality and simplicity of the Sikkimese people is an acknowledged fact where every other tourist is received with that Himalayan smile and our door forever open to treat you with a bit of chaang or that gourmet favourite sel roti.

(4)                         A land of diverse culture and tradition, our dance and songs basically celebrate nature, gods and our deities in various forms and manifestation, offering you a unique blend which are at once divine and humane and form integral part of living experience of all the Sikkimese  

We are traditionally an agrarian State. However, with only over 14 percent of land available for productive cultivation, Nature itself has willed it that way as agricultural activities alone will not suffice to fulfil the growing demand of our people. Nonetheless, our forefathers from generation to generation toiled in hardship and relative want and contented to live an average life as part of social habit. Living on meagre earning, they practised traditional means of occupation be it in farming, backdoor vegetable production or animal husbandry.

However, in the present day world, the same mode of occupation with similar degree of involvement will not be able to support modern life style and new generation demands. With limited job creation in government sector, we would need additional avenues for absorbing our educated population in gainful employment. With the emergence of borderless world, Sikkim is no longer free from outside influence. In this global village, we see negative factors influence our life like that of culture of consumerism. I mean consumerism not only in respect of material goods and production, but consumerism also in respect of negative thinking, harmful feeling and undesirable habits and culture that we tend to imitate and imbibe from the outside world.

And this has been our sincere endeavour over the last two decades to keep Sikkim free from negative influence or that we develop enough immunity so that Sikkim is not converted into a dumping ground of alien culture and devastating human habit found elsewhere in the world.  For the same reason and with the same objective, we have devised appropriate and scientifically tenable development roadmap to ensure how and in what many ways we can make our Nature resourceful to serve the larger interest of the Sikkimese people. How best we can make Nature as our long-term instrument for development and welfare of the Sikkimese people.

Ladies and gentlemen, what we witness today is the result of our long-drawn thinking to make eco-tourism as our major profession and major input to lift up local economy. Today, I am happy to reflect that in the area of eco-tourism, Sikkim is an exemplary State in the North East and a model State in the Country. What we have achieved today is to fully institutionalize the culture of harnessing our natural resources on a sustainable basis and for long-term gain. This will form part of our inclusive approach to bring about comprehensive development of the State by duly harnessing human capital and our natural resources on a complementary mode.  This is where Eco-tourism becomes core sector of economy in the State.

Sikkim State is in the forefront of tourism development in the Country, with some innovative and one-of-its-kind projects being commissioned for the visiting tourist. In the sphere of pilgrimage tourism, Sikkim is the premiere destination.  The State has so far received 21 tourism awards since 1998. Recent national awards include (i) Comprehensive Tourism Development; (ii) Clean India Campaign and (iii) Innovative/Unique Tourism Project- for the Siddheshvara Dham, popularly known as char dhams which was consecrated by Jagatguru Shankaracharya Swami Swarupananda Saraswati in November 2011. This single complex together with twelve Jyotir-lingas and an imposing statue of Lord Shiva, will offer a unique experience to devotees and tourists of visiting all the four dhams spread across the Country in one place and at the same time at Solophok, Namchi, South Sikkim.

Recently, we have also taken up another major and unique pilgrimage project to develop Ramayana Busty at Barang in East Sikkim. We are aware that Vamliki wrote the epic story held sacred by millions of Hindu devotees. Here we will infuse life to the holy characters by developing the whole village on the basis of story and as per sequences found in the holy book.  This will include installation of life sized statues, live representation and replicas across the village complex. In short, the whole epic story will be solidified through various representative models and statues for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Simultaneously, we are also developing Shakti Sthal at Mungrang, South Sikkim. This pilgrimage project will be unique as this will have all the representative statues of Goddesses found and recounted in Hindu pantheon in a single complex on the hill top overlooking Sikkim’s landscape and also neighbouring towns of West Bengal.    

In addition, we are constructing Kali Mandir, Siddhivinayak Mandir in the State. We have already constructed Sirde Sai Baba Mandir at Assangthang, Sai baba Mandir at Daramdin, Uama Mandir and Sirijunga Statue with study centre at Bermiok. Another unique project has been the Stairway to Heaven project in Daramdin based on precious Lepcha mythology. We have installed the highest statue of Guru Padmasambhava at Samdruptse, Buddha Park at Ravangla and statue of Chen Regiz in Pelling are being developed in the State. Ropeway linking the hill top of Samdruptse with Namchi bazaar will be functional within this year and, in fact, Sikkim was the first State in the North East to successfully lay passenger ropeway from Deorali to Tashiling Secretariat overhanging the entire stretch of Deorali Bazar and urban habitation.  All these have clearly established Sikkim as the Number One State in the Country in the area of pilgrimage tourism giving an important message that our faith and beliefs could transcend all barriers to make it productive duly linking them with tourism as economically viable  proposition.

Sikkim is home to unique life style, unique customs and traditions. We follow distinct faith and folk tradition. Among our faith healers that we revere are the jhankris, bijuwas, bungthing, weva, wema, baidang, paw, homey and our sanctum santorum include secluded corners of our homes, camphor, prayer bells, prayer wheels, the suptulung as the resting places of our ancestors. Our folk dance like the Shyapda dance, Maruni dance, Sangini Dance, Hakparey dance, silli dance, vom alok, hopma cham, chabrung dance, damfu dance etc. are all part of our living experience bringing us closer to our nature. Ethnic food items of momo, thukpa, gundruk, kinama, wachipa, washim, ummak, chyang, tomba, jaarh, chanuwa. Traditional dresses of Bakhu, gada, daura suruwal, gunyoo choli and tanfey yamlung etc. define our basic temperament and our basic outlook to life, as markedly different from any other community in the world.

Apart from our deep rooted belief in isolation, our effort has been to bring out tradition and culture from the four walls of our homes and make them productive by finding scientific space and as modern means of expression to make them perennial source of development instrument for our people. This way we want to make our culture and tradition equally productive by duly linking them with our tourism trade as the people’s occupation.

Another very ambitious project has been installation of Skywalk on the top of Bhaleydhunga in similar fashion as found in Grand Canyon. However, ours at over 10,000 feet would be at higher alleviation than the one found over Colorado river which is over 4000 feet above sea level. We are developing all our urban habitation and rural areas in the line of eco-city concept with comprehensive socio-economic infrastructure. This way we want to promote Sikkim as the Eco-city State in the Country. We are going to be the first kutcha house free and slum free State in the Country.

Knowing full well the growing aspiration of our people, we have also developed road stretch from Deorali to Metro Point as Fashion Street much like the Fashion Street developed in Harazuka, Tokyo in Japan. Similar facilities like Food Street at Chandmari, along Nathula road is proposed to be developed. This will be much like the Gwal Mandi in Lahore or Yunan in China which are famous for kawabs or the Chinese delicacies.  This will not only help identify our corners and streets as ones selling Sikkimese branded items but help focussing development of tourism as one-point agenda and promote it as the number one occupation of our people.

With rich natural resources at our disposal, we want to develop Sikkim as Holland of India in the production and marketing of floriculture and horticulture produce ultimately transforming Sikkim into a veritable garden of Flowers.   In fact, Sikkim is going to be the first Organic State of the Indian Union within the next two years.

Initiatives are being taken to offer wide range of experience to the visiting tourists including village tourism, homestay tourism, culture tourism, adventure tourism, wellness tourism, monsoon tourism and akant vas tourism.

Sikkim is Nature’s paradise. Therefore and for the same reason, I say to my Sikkimese fellow citizens that we must and we must harness our potential on a sustainable basis and without any doubt we have to harness our eco-tourism potential, agriculture, horticulture and floriculture as our natural strength.  In this context, I call upon all our youth population to urgently take up this knowledge based industry, this service sector to become the master of your own destiny. Unlike employment under government sector, this is one such profession, where you will never become unemployed and will never go out of fashion. I assure all of you of all-out support from the State Government in terms of creation of infrastructures and other facilities like interest free loan and vehicle loan to promote village tourism and home stay tourism etc.   

Earthquake is natural phenomena which cannot be predicted or defined in simple words. This has occurred across the world at different points of time. Sikkim was also hit by devastating earthquake in September 2011 causing human suffering. This phenomenon is beyond human control, yet I would like to inform all people that Sikkim will now have earthquake resistant construction manuals applicable to all and greater care would be taken care to protect life and property of our people in the future.   

Worldwide, there is concern expressed to balance Development need with environmental sustainability. As Himalayan state, we are too conscious about it. We want development but not at the cost of environmental security. In fact, we initiated a large number of environmental measures since 1995-96. Beginning with Harit Kranti Vasha that we observed in 1995, we undertook green campaign including Smriti Van, Sikkim Green Mission and the Ten Minutes to Earth. We have created Biodiversity Park, Birds’ Sanctuary and Herbal Gardens. We have imposed blanket ban on killing of wildlife. We are the only State to ban grazing is reserved forest which is the first such instance in the world. Felling of green trees is banned and felling of one tree from private land holdings for bona fide use, should be compensated by planting 50 more trees, all roads would be transformed into eco-road with large number of avenue plantation. These are, part of, a large number of other environmental protection measures undertaken by the State Government to maintain our ecological balance.

Sikkim is a sensitive border state. Nonetheless there is perfect peace, security, neat and clean environment and is today known as the best State in the Country. All people from Sikkim and also outside should be able to appreciate this rare achievement in the face of global environment. No doubt, we are the producers of peace and Sikkim’s image as constituent State of Indian Union is the best one today. However, at this juncture, I would like to sound a note of caution to all my fellow Sikkimese to not to take things for granted. We know, peace requires protection, development and security require sustained promotion, rule of law need regular patronage. We have sweat day and night to achieve this formidable position and my fellow Sikkimese must realize and break free of illusion and come out of confusion to make horizon clear and remain forever vigilant and responsible to guard our society against all elements who seek to spread disharmony in the name of politics, caste and creed.   

I express my thanks to the GOC, Prasad ji and all other Members of Army establishment for jointly holding this festival with the State Government. I also want to thank the Department of Tourism for the hard work to hold this festival. I thank students who are present today in large number to witness this festival.

With these few words, I welcome one and all to this festival and I declare the Sikkim Spring Carnival 2012 open.

I wish you Happy stay and good health

Thank you / Jai Hind