“SKM government’s crony capitalism has created massive economic discrepancies”: Chamling

Press Release

Pawan Chamling shares his concern about Sikkim ranking 4th in unemployment rate in the country and questions the SKM government’s lack of policy to address the increasing unemployment problem in Sikkim.

“Q. The unemployment rate in Sikkim has crossed 20% and the state has now ranked 4th in the country. As the main opposition party, what would you like to tell the youth? The SDF party has not been able to question the government about the increasing unemployment in the state. How is the SDF party going to hold the SKM government responsible for their failure in job creation?

Ans: Sikkim has finally woken up to this sad reality. Now no one can hide it. Nor can anybody run away from it. Blaming the SDF party is not going to help. The reality is that Sikkimese youth have been struggling with no employment opportunities. Joining the SKM stone pelting army is the only option but the truly educated and morally sound youth would never take that dire step. This option is only for criminally minded people. Our critics will never believe us when we warn the Sikkimese people of the long-term consequences of the SKM’s misgovernance. Now, I hope they will at least believe that these are not the SDF party’s data. These are data generated by national agencies. For Sikkim, with a population of around 7 lakh, to rank 4th in unemployment rate with 20.7 percent is an alarming reality. The unemployment rate of 2.1% in 2019 under the SDF government has increased to 20.7 % in 2023 under the SKM government. It is a glaring sign of failed governance. I will give you a few important reasons why it happened.

1. The SKM government’s crony capitalism has created massive economic discrepancies. This government has diverted almost 60-70 percent of the State budget to big projects only to benefit a few business partners of the Chief Minister. The SKM government has also diverted the revenue generated by selling all of the government’s assets and properties to help their business partners. They are minting crores of rupees in the name of these projects. Their families and close aides have become crorepati and arabpatis. Their income has increased 300 -500 times in the last four years but the benefit to the common people of Sikkim is zero. While big contractors are getting contract works worth 1000 to 8000 crore rupees, local contractors have been struggling as their bills have been pending for years.
2. A huge amount of money meant for the development of Sikkim has been misused by the SKM party to buy so-called heavyweight joiners and to fund propaganda teams.
3. Chief Minister PS Goley has no idea about employment generation and job vacancy creation. He has completely failed to formulate policies that lead to the creation of job avenues. He thinks that a job is some kind of sweet in his pocket that he can distribute to whoever he likes. A few harassed and struggling individuals to whom he gives appointments for his social media shoots are used as bait for his political propaganda. His team will shoot a few videos of Mr Goley verbally promising to give a government job and signing on the petition letter. How silly! That’s not how the government is run. That is not how unemployment problems are addressed. He is making himself a joker. The educated youth are laughing. The future generations will laugh at us for choosing such a leader to head our government.
4. A few influential SKM leaders including the CM, the CM’s family members, Ministers and MLAs have been filling vacant government posts with their close relatives through the backdoor. Such illegal practices are going to be thoroughly investigated in future.
5. The SKM government discontinued our OFOJ scheme which was nationally applauded. The Chief Minister is shamelessly asking the OFOJ employees to leave their jobs and go to other parts of India to work. He is planning to convert them into migrant workers. That is his vision for Sikkimese youth.
6. One of the most shocking steps taken by the SKM government was to remove hundreds of Sikkimese people from their jobs as a part of their victimization strategy. The SKM government has become the only Sikkim government that robbed Sikkimese people of their jobs.
   Unfortunately, hundreds of youth in Sikkim have no idea about the worsening unemployment situation in the state. Their attention has been diverted by the government by using them to physically and mentally attack other Sikkimese people. Many other youth who are aware of the situation and want to raise their concerns are either attacked or intimidated by the hired goons of the SKM party. Entrepreneurial zeal and passion in the state have been severely damaged by this myopic government by politicizing everything. Many promising entrepreneurs have been victimized by this ruthless government just because they were not SKM supporters.

The SDF party has been vocal about the SKM government’s utter lack of policy. We have been raising the issue regularly. We have been questioning the hiring of the relatives of the SKM leaders in government positions through the backdoor. We have taken serious note of the government removing hundreds of Sikkimese people from their jobs.

The SKM party that promised 30,000 jobs has failed to create even 300 jobs in the last four years. They are mere windbags and the people of Sikkim no longer take them seriously. The Sikkimese people will take the wind out of these bags soon.”

Judy Rai
General Secy., Press & Publicity Affairs
SDF.
30.04.2023