Sikkim CM Pawan Chamling embarks on a 36-day 'village-to-village' tour

Gangtok: A Coordination meeting of all the departments of the State Government was held here at the conference hall of the Tashiling Secretariat Conference Hall on Tueasday May 10. The meeting chaired by the Chief Minister was attended by the Cabinet Ministers and head of the state government departments. The meeting was a follow up of the coordination meeting held on 27th August 2010 and in line with the 100 days programme of the government.
At the outset the Chief Minister urged the heads of the departments to be very serious about the proceedings of the meeting. He said, “we as public representatives and government servants are answerable and responsible to the people on whose mandate we are here”. The Chief Minister also announced his tour programme of visiting village to village for thirty six days which he hinted can even be extended on the demands of the people.

Chief Minister told the meeting about tour schedule from 17th May to 21st June 2011 to go from village to village all over the state and directed all the HoDs to accompany him to assess and review the works undertaken by the government in all these years of governance. “We will see where our weakness lies and take decisions on the spot”, he said. “This will be a new experiment not only for the state but even for the entire country”, he added.

In the meeting Chief Minister took stock of most of the schemes of the government under each and every department. About development of a new township at Pakyong he said the government has already acquired land at Pakyong and investors are approaching the government with their proposals but “we are not able to deliver their requirement in time”. Big investors do not move at the pace in which we are moving and “it is high time that we speed up our delivery system”.

He asked the Forest department to expedite the process of forest clearance for the ambitious Sky Walk Project at Bhaley Dhunga. Turning the meeting’s attention towards health department he told the department to strengthen the CATCH programme of the state government. The programme is not going on as per the expectation of the government he said and added that capacity building of the existing manpower is a must. He also asked the department to check the problem faced by the PHC’s and PHSC’s with regard to supply of medicines. He told the Secretary to prepare plan for construction of helipad at the upcoming Sichey Hospital.

Referring to various schemes undertaken the Rural Management and Development Department the Chief Minister said that coordination of officials of RMDD and forest department is very much necessary for providing timber and other forest products for the houses to be built under Kutcha House Free State Mission of the government. He advised convergence of the scheme with MGNREGA for ground leveling of the houses should also be done, he added. He mentioned the problem of water crisis faced all over the state and asked the UDHD department to give priority to roof water harvesting. The source of perennial water should also be ascertained, he said.

To curb corruption, Chief Minister asked the officers to “be very strict and leave no stone unturned to curb the menace of corruption from the entire administrative machinery of the state”. He asked the officers to search ways and means to take strict action against those government servants who resort to unfair activities. “The administrators should be able to utilize their power and maintain administrative discipline in the system”, he underlined.

He directed the heads of department to fill the shortage of manpower in their departments immediately