Gantok, June 27: The difference is noticeable the moment one crosses the border from West Bengal into Sikkim. Colourful stone arches and wall panels embedded with Sikkimese tribal motifs greet a visitor and houses and streets take on a more cheerful and cleaner hue. Rangpo, the first town across the border, shows signs of civic order not associated with the chaos and municipal neglect of Indian small towns.
The change is starker as one enters the precincts of Gangtok, the state capital, with a sign proclaiming “You are now entering an open defecation-free zone”.
Gangtok’s development is a surprise, especially since one was coming here after some decades. The streets are clean and litter-free (littering invites deterrent fines), traffic is organised and disciplined (overtaking during peak hours on narrow hill roads also invites heavy fines of up to Rs 5,000) and the well-planned city centre with its pedestrian walkways, well maintained overbridges and tubular connectors, a nearly kilometre-long tiled pedestrian shopping plaza, bisected by fountains, flowering plants and benches, makes one feel one is in some Southeast Asian city, not India. Gangtok Municipal Corporation is one civic body that seems to be doing its work, quite unlike slothful municipalities in the rest of the country.
Sikkim gives you the first impression of a well-administered state.
A recent article in Sikkim Express, written by local commentator Jiwan Rai, summed up the angst of the Sikkimese when he asks: “It would be interesting to know how much the rest of India knows about us. How much interest or concern do we generate in the domain of public communication in mainstream India?”
One of the main problems of Sikkim is accessibility. It has no air link - the airport project is delayed by over three years until 2017 - and the only access is through Bagdogra, from where a four-hour - if there are no landslides - drive along the picturesque Teesta river, brings you to Gangtok. The nearest railhead is New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal through which it gets a lot of tourists from eastern India. Tourism is nevertheless booming as Sikkim provides good hill-station experience, with a lot of ecotourism and homestays, at affordable costs.
Being India’s least populous state with a population of just over 610,000, its mountainous, landlocked geography and its strategic location, where it shares boundaries on three sides with China, Nepal and Bhutan, makes agriculture, transportation and communication difficult and administration a challenge.
