New building of Sikkim HC inaugurated

 GANGTOK, Feb 17 – The outgoing Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court A H Saikia today inaugurated a new High Court building equipped with various facilities for the members of the bench and the Bar.

The outgoing Chief Justice, who has been transferred in the same capacity to Jammu and Kashmir High Court, said that he was privileged to get the opportunity to inaugurate the new building before his departure.

The new building of the Sikkim High Court has been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 6.5 crore and has five court rooms, a library and chambers of the advocates, besides other facilities.

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Sikkim honoured with four awards in State Conclave by India Today Group

7TH INDIA TODAY STATE OF STATES CONCLAVE
Sikkim honoured with four awards
Punjab, Delhi are best performing states

Sikkim Express

CM Sikkim Shri Pawan Chamling with Pranab Mukherjee - Sikkim honoured with four awards in State Conclave by India Today Group

GANGTOK, Sept 14: Punjab and Delhi were honoured as the overall best performing big and small states respectively at the 7th India Today State of States Conclave held in New Delhi today.
Among the small states, Delhi’s performance in consumer markets and infrastructure was adjudged the best while Goa was honoured for health, investment and macro economy.
Sikkim was honoured with four awards. It has ranked first in Education in the small State category .For the India Today Bharat Nirman Awards among the small State category Sikkim was ranked highest in the rural roads, E-governance and rural electrification. The awards were presented by the chief guest, Union Minister Agriculture and Food, Sharad Pawar. Chief Minister Pawan Chamling was present on this occasion to receive the awards.
The 2009 edition of the Conclave saw Punjab walk away with best performance among big states in agriculture, consumer markets and infrastructure. Himachal ranked the highest among the big states in education, health and investment.
For the India Today Bharat Nirman Awards, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were the best big states in Rural Roads and Irrigation respectively. Andhra Pradesh was adjudged the best big state in Rural Electrification.
The full list of rankings is as follows:
INDIA TODAY STATE OF THE STATES 2009
Overall Performance
• Best Big State: Punjab
• Best Small State: Delhi
• Fastest Mover: Himachal Pradesh
Agriculture
• Best Big State: Punjab
• Best Small State: Puducherry
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Punjab
Consumer Markets
• Best Big State: Punjab
• Best Small State: Delhi
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Maharashtra
Education
• Best Big State: Himachal Pradesh
• Best Small State: Sikkim
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Uttarakhand
Law and Order
• Best Big State: Kerala
• Best Small State: Puducherry
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Karnataka
Health
• Best Big State: Himachal Pradesh
• Best Small State: Goa
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Uttarakhand
Infrastructure
• Best Big State: Punjab
• Best Small State: Delhi
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Punjab
Investment
• Best Big State: Himachal Pradesh
• Best Small State: Goa
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Himachal Pradesh
Macro Economy
• Best Big State: Himachal Pradesh
• Best Small State: Goa
• Fastest Mover (2003-09): Himachal Pradesh
INDIA TODAY BHARAT NIRMAN AWARDS
NREGA
• Best Big State: Rajasthan
• Best Small State: Mizoram
Rural Roads
• Best Big State: Uttar Pradesh
• Best Small State: Sikkim
Irrigation
• Best Big State: Tamil Nadu
• Best Small State: Arunachal Pradesh
Housing for Poor
• Best Big State: Uttarakhand
• Best Small State: Nagaland
Rural Electrification
• Best Big State: Andhra Pradesh
• Best Small State: Sikkim
Drinking Water
• Best Big State: Kerala
• Best Small State: Arunachal Pradesh
E-Governance
• Best Big State: Haryana
• Best Small State: Sikkim

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Manpower Crunch in NERO

SHILLONG, Jan 15 : With 80 projects to monitor in a year, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest North East Regional Office (NERO), headquartered in Shillong, is facing a manpower crunch that has impaired its effective functioning.

With a sanctioned staff of 32, the regional office is presently hugely understaffed as only 12 members are there to look after the eight Northeastern States.

The North East Regional Office set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 7 April, 1986 along with the regional offices in Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal and Lucknow doesn’t even have a regular Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF).

Very surprisingly 22 years after the regional office was set up, the Environment and Forest Ministry is yet to fill up 20 posts some of it at the very top level.

Considering that the mandate of the regional office created by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is to monitor and evaluate ongoing forestry development projects and schemes with specific emphasis to conservation of forests, to undertake physical inspection of sites in cases of diversion of forest involving an area of more than 40 hectares, regional level technical and scientific consultation with the State advisory committee which are among some of the list of its job profile, the delay of appointing the required staff is perplexing.

At present the NERO CCF post is vacant with the Bhubaneshwar CCF RK Dey holding additional charge. He comes only for two days to Shillong office and inevitable all the files needing forest clearance get stranded in his office.

If adhoc arrangement of giving additional charge of NERO to the Bhubaneshwar CCF has been made then the second important post of Conservator of Forest is lying vacant.

NERO Deputy Conservator of Forest RL Sanga told reporters on Friday: “The shortage of manpower has certainly impact disposal of project proposals with the stipulated time frame of 45 days.

However, we try our best to perform up to our optimum.” In these 22 years of existence, NERO has approved 1,125 different projects and given the forests clearance in the eight Northeastern States.

According to Sanga, the job profile of NERO also involves traveling to different projects sites in the eight States — Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. Inevitably, as there is manpower shortage, the effectiveness of this regional office is curtailed. NERO staff says that the position in other regional offices is far better as almost all the posts have been filled up.

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