Seventy percent of total Plan outlay has been earmarked for the development of the rural areas of the State and other poverty alleviation programmes.

As a part of Sikkim Democratic Front Government's commitment to uplift the poor and downtrodden of the State wages of daily labourers have been increased by cent percent. May 1 has also been declared as Government holiday to observe Labour Day in honour of those who toil.

All students upto Class V are being provided with free uniforms, text books and exercise books.

Genuine Indian people of Sikkimese origin need not take licence for business activities in rural areas of the State.

The quantity of GCI sheets being distributed to poor in the State have been increased to 30 and a total of 6000 families are yearly covered.

The State Government has started granting monthly honorarium of Rs. 400/- to Sabhapati and Rs. 300/- to other members of the Panchayats of the State.

One of the first major steps taken by the Sikkim Democratic Front Government is to impose complete ban on serving of liquors in all Government functions. including Press Conferences.

To instill a sense of security among the members of public additional Police booths have been set up at various vantage points in and around the capital Gangtok.

To catch the needs of the students of South and West District new Degree College has been started at Namchi, the headquarter of the South district.

Two Nava Vidyalaya Schools will be started within this year in the East and South districts and one Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya at Rakdong Tintek in East District.

Relief grant to affected families by natural calamities has been enhanced from Rs. 1000/- to Rs. 2000/- per family.

Various steps have been taken to render help and assistance in drought affected areas and every affected family has been given 40 kgs. of rice to begin with.

Milching Cows and piglets are being distributed to poor agriculturalists all over the State to increase their purchasing power and eventually make them self-reliant.

 Ex-gratia grant for next of kin of Police personnel who dies in harness has been increased from Rs. 20,000/- to Rs.1,00,000/ and to those rendered disabled from Rs. 15,000/- to Rs.50,000/ Monthly ration allowances are being granted to all personnel in the lower ranks of Sikkim Police over and above their monthly pay and allowances at the rate of Rs. 200/- per month.

Steps have been taken to set up a Music School and Sports Institute in the State. To encourage sports activities in rural areas the State Government has been granting funds for sports activities from the Sub-Division level.

Talent Research Contests are being organised in schools to identify talented students who will be conferred meritorious awards. Similarly, promising students who are through Class XII will be sent for specialized trainings so as to make them capable of shouldering important responsibilities in future.

A University - in the name of the Father of the Nation - Gandhiji is a cherished demand being consistently placed before the Central Government. The University shall be a Centre for engineering and all other faculties.

Old Age Pension is being granted to 100 eligible persons from each of the 32 constituencies in the State. A total of 6400 persons have already availed themselves of this benefit.

Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and Other Back Caste Development Corporation has been set up to grant low-interest loan to people falling under these categories for their speedy economic development. A Cooperative Bank with almost similar facilities is also being set up.

Foundation stone of Sikkim's Temple-cum-Guest House at Bodhgaya,Bihar has been laid by the Chief Minister, Mr. Pawan Chamling on January 29, 1996.

An amount of Rs. 63 lakhs has been disbursed this year as Housing loan to State Government employees.

One thousand three hundred seventy eight (1378) artisians have
been provided with financial assiatance to the extent of Rs. 25,000/
each with 40% subsidy as outright grant with a view to create self
employment opportunities.

There has been tremendous improvemen/progress in the road condition of State Highways. The total length of the roads constructed, carpetted, widened, improved and restores comes 11708 km.

The Government has taken a decision for setting up of an "Apex Co-operative Bank". The construction of Sahakari Bhawan at Krishi Bhawan Complex is under active progress.

The schemes for providing assistance to physically handicapped, destitute children, women and voluntary organizations have helped the people of these categories tremendously.

One hundred sixteen numbers of High, Middle and Lower Income Group and shopping units have so far been constructed under Housing Schemes and 4655 economically weak, low, middle and high income group of people have been provided with the housing loan.

Under "Employment Assurance Scheme" the under employed, unemployed, villagers and agriculture lab ours are provided with 11.67 lakhs mandays agricultural employment. The scheme cover
construction of school grounds, motorable roads, log bridges, Panchayat Ghars, Crematorium shed, soil conservation wide productive works etc.

Under Village Water Supply Scheme 576 habitations have so far been covered while under Rural Sanitation a total of 1,673 household latrines, 77 institutional latrines and 10 bathing cubicles have been constructed during 1995-96.

Jawahar Rozgar Yojana" (JRY) too has generated employment opportunities for the unemployed/under employed and agricultural labours of the rural areas. A number of village roads protective works, community centres, repair works of school buildings, Monastery, Mandir have been carried out under 'JRY' scheme.

The duration of the All India Radio programme at Gangtok has been extended with additional programmes in Limboo and Lepcha languages. One 10kw shortwave transmitter and two 10MW transmitters of All India Radio at Penangla and Play-back facilities of High Power Transmitter (HPT) of Doordarshan at Chandmari both near Gangtok for better and greater coverage were also iinaugurated this year.

A seminar-cum-workshop on Development of Journalism jointly organised by the State Information & Public Relations Department and the Federation of North East Journalists was held in Gangtok for the first time from 23rd to 25th March of this year.

Freedom of Press has been fully restored and the black chapter of gagging the Press is over while yellow journalism is closely watched for legal action.

Women are being given equal opportunity along with male members in every sphere of human activities. Thirty per cent reservations have been made for ladies in Panchayats.

One of the first major policy decisions taken by the Sikkim Democratic Front Government is to maintain austerity measure and curtail all unnecessary expenditures. Consequently, the internal revenue of the State Government has gone up by 35 percent during the year 1995-96 in comparison with previous years.

Sikkim is being figured in the railway map of the country. Survey work for the rail link will begin within this year as declared by the Union Minister for Railways, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan in the Parliament.

Price of rice has been subsidized by Re. 1/- per kg to enable the genuine ration card holders to buy rice at Rs. 6/- per kg.
The subsidy has entailed the State Exchequer the liability of Rs.
45.00 lakhs per month which in a year works out to Rs. 540.00 lakhs.

The traditional Dzumsa system, equivalent to Panchayats, has been preserved in Lachung and Lachen in North Sikkim and the nomenclature Pipons in lieu of Sabhapatis retained.

The Cabinet, unlike in earlier regimes, represents different sections of the people of Sikkim. For the first time in the history of Sikkim the State has a Deputy Chief Minister from the Scheduled

Pay Commission has been set up for Government employees and revision shall be done along with the revision of pay of the Central Government employees.

Planned development of towns including the State Capital Gangtok is being taken in hand with the thrust on maintenance of sanitation.

Creation of a satellite town at Reshithang below Sichey Busty in East Sikkim is in the offing to ease the congestion in Gangtok.

All airstrip at Pakyong is also coming upin the State for which the Centre has already sanctioned an amount of Rs. 30.00 crores.

Sick Industries being revived either by running them as joint ventures or by privatising them. As part of this policy the sick Fruit Preservation Factory at Singtam is now being run jointly with a reputed Swiss firm.

Foundation stone of a new High Court building at Sichey near Gangtok has been laid by the Chief Justice of India, Justice A.M. Ahmadi early this year. Similarly, new Judicial Magistrate building have been constructed at Gyalshing in West Sikkim and Mangan in North Sikkim.

Law and order situation in the State is normal. Immoral activities have been stopped. Gambling is totally banned and a number IIf offenders booked under law.

Land Bank Scheme has been started under which landless Sukumbasis are given land free of cost. Similarly Government had sanctioned an amount of Rs. 12.00 crores last year for construction of houses for homeless Sukumbasis. The Chief Minister had already made the the token distribution of grant for this scheme under which 6OOO homeless Sukumbasis have been benefitted.

For the first time in the history of Sikkim the North Eastern Sports Festival, the tenth in series, was conducted at Gangtok and other important towns of the State with great success.

To promote Tourism in a big way it is being declared as an Industry and a Tourism Development Board has also been set up. The Union Tourism Minister has assured the Chief Minister of Sikkim to set up ITDC Hotel and Hotel Management Institute in the State.

Again, for the first time in the history of Sikkim a State level Photo Contest programme was organised by the Department of Information and Public Relations in September this year.

Another important event organized for the first time in the history of this State was the Historic Photo Exhibition of rare photographs catching back to 1860 and onwards was held in the historic White Memorial Hall at Gangtok from 5th to 12th November, 1996 and further extended for another week. This was held in collaboration with the Royal Anthropological Institute, Royal Geographical Society and British Council by the Department of Information and Public Relations.

Apart from special issues on the occasion of Independence Day and Republic Day the Sikkim Herald was published in the memory of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd October 1996 in all the six languages.·

The first ever Sikkim Trade Fair 1996 was organised from 2nd to 7th December 1996 by the Cooperative Department. There were one hundred fourteen stalls and various Government as well as non-Government organisations, Cooperative Societies and Social organisations participated in it.