The Chief Minister also sensitised the Panchayats about their responsibilities.
“Sikkim has been accorded the number one status in the country for total sanitation. It is the duty of the Panchayats, who are the grassroots government, to maintain this recognition,” Chamling said.
The chief minister also highlighted the development work done by his government since 1994.
“Roads have reached every nook and corner of the state. In the past five years, the state government has built 1,422 kms of roads all over in Sikkim,” he said.
“The SDF government, in the past 14 years, has pumped Rs 300 crore for the 4,600 schemes for drinking water supply in the state. A sum of Rs 54 crore has been spent for construction of 1003 bridges, besides construction of 1,151 model houses at a cost of Rs 40 crore,” Chamling said.
“Till now, we have distributed 25,821 LPG gas connections to the economically backward people,” he added. At the outset of his lengthy speech, the chief minister briefly told the gathering of Panchayats from all over the state that he will not make it an ‘election speech’.
“But I will tell only this much that people must be serious about their responsibility to elect a good government,” he said.
“As elections are coming, people should not think who should be their MLAs or which party should form the government they should instead seriously think on what kind of government they want to elect that will protect their future and develop Sikkim,” Chamling said.
“People must be clear about under whose leadership their futures are protected,” he said.
Earlier, in his speech, state Rural Development Minister K N Rai was more direct regarding the ruling SDF’s expectations for the coming elections. “SDF will form the next government,” he announced.