‘SKM Govt sold future of Sikkimese youth’, accuses SDF president Pawan Chamling

Launching a scathing attack on the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) government of Sikkim, the president of the opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) and former Chief Minister Pawan Chamling said that the Sikkimese youth have been the worst victim of the SKM government’s misrule during the last four and a half years.

In his weekly Q&A format press statement, Chamling said that the SKM government’s idea of youth empowerment is to give statewide Tambola licenses, purchase cars from unidentified and unreported funding sources, and distribute them to a few supporters.

They also promote youth empowerment by honouring goons. The goons who were directly involved in the riot and brutal attack on Joint Action Council (JAC) general secretary, Keshav Sapkota have been rewarded with contracts, cash, and vehicles, as well as important positions. That is the SKM party’s youth vision, said Chamling.

“At a time when the youth in the world are trained to think creatively and critically, the SKM government is bent on instilling a destructive mind-set in our youth. In the last four and a half years, Sikkim had witnessed a gradually increasing number of young people joining the violent stone-pelting army of the SKM party who have been openly involved in various forms of violence and mob attacks. Imagine the future of a society where youth are encouraged in such activities,” said Chamling.

He said, “The SKM government has sold the future of our youth.”

Accusing SKM of having failed to create and expand opportunities for the youth, Chamling said that the fact that Sikkim, with an over 20 per cent unemployment rate, became one of India’s worst states in the field of employment generation shows how badly the SKM government has wasted human capital.

After torturing, demeaning, and bullying Sikkim’s youth for four and a half years, they are now hastily organizing pretentious youth programs, he added.

He also asked SKM a number of questions concerning these, and sought answers:

1. How many Sikkimese youth have suffered physical injury at the hands of SKM sponsored stone-pelters and goons?

2. How many Sikkimese youth suffered head injuries from SKM goons?

3. How many exams have been conducted by the Sikkim State Public Service Commission under the SKM government? How many job vacancies were created in the last four and a half years?

 4. How many Sikkim youth obtained regular employment through a proper and transparent recruitment process in the last four and a half years? (Many of the relatives of SKM senior leaders, MLAs, chairpersons, Ministers and the Chief Minister have been given employment through the backdoor).

5. In the last four and a half years, how many new entrepreneurial enterprises were launched by Sikkimese youth who have no direct link to the Chief Minister?

6. How many vocal Sikkimese youth have been arrested by the Sikkim police simply because they questioned the state government?

7. How many college students were expelled by this government simply because they wanted to meet the Education Minister of Sikkim?

8. Which Indian state government called students terrorists?

9. How many Sikkimese youth have been expelled from their government jobs in the last four and a half years? Did such a thing ever happen before the SKM government?

10. How many government adhoc teachers were de-employed during the Covid pandemic?

11. How many young lives were killed in road accidents across Sikkim due to extremely poor maintenance of roads in the last four and a half years?

12. How many houses and cars have been damaged by goons across Sikkim under the watch of the SKM government?

13. How many government offices and buildings and historic buildings have been vandalized and burnt under the watch of the SKM government?

14. Under which youth scheme did a few SKM supporters get free vehicles from the SKM party? How many deserving Sikkimese youth benefitted from such schemes?

15. What are the youth-centric policies formulated and successfully implemented in the last four and a half years?

16. What did the government do to promote entrepreneurship in the globally acclaimed field of organic farming? What did they do with such a ready-made brand?

17. What did the SKM government do to promote Sikkim tourism which is directly related to youth? Why is Sikkim tourism earning a bad name due to increasing extortion and road accidents in the last four and a half years?

18. What percentage of the Sikkimese youth population was satisfied with the inquiry report submitted by Justice Narendra Kumar Jain on the death of Shri Padam Gurung?

19. How many promises given in the SKM manifesto have been fulfilled?