SIKKIM OBSERVER  Saturday   Feb 2- 8,  2013    

IHM first institute in India to get global skills training

     Institute of Hotel Management, Sajong, Rumtek, East Sikkim

Gangtok, Feb 1:  Labour Secretary CT Wangdi emphasized on the need to cash on the inherent goodness of hill people in the hospitality sector.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the two-day training programme of the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Sazong, East Sikkim, on Tuesday, the Secretary said hill students would fair better in the hospitality sector as they are gifted with certain basic traits that are needed in this sector. He said the institution was established with a vision to “achieve something.”

The two-day training for trainers on “Overseas Employment Skill Development Centre” was given by internationally-recognised Paul Mount of UK’s Edexcel (educational excellence). Mount assured the students and staff of the institute with these comforting words: “Our job leads to work.”

He said skill development in colleges is important as mere degrees are no guarantee for jobs.

According to Ravindra Singh, Vice-President of ASPIRE, New Delhi, not more than 25% of graduates get employed each year in the country. He, therefore, emphasized the need for vocational education, which provides jobs to students based on their skills.

Interestingly, Sikkim is the first State in the country to undertake the two-day training, according to IHM’s Administrator/Principal JT Gyaltsen, the main pillar of the institute. He said his students, who get certificates after getting the training, will be in a better position to get jobs abroad.

Already, in a short span of time IHM ranks among top ten hotel management colleges in the country as far as job placement is concerned after completing the three-year B.Sc course in hotel management and catering technology

Other than IHM staff, some panchayat members of the State and a group from Assam were undertook the training.

The programme was organized by IHM and ASPIRE in collaboration with Directorate of Capacity Building of the State Government. TN Kazi, Director of the Directorate, was also present during the function.

Set up in 1990 as Food Craft Institute by Ministry of Tourism, IHM got affiliated to National Council for Hotel Management (Ministry of Tourism) in 2000.

Centre wants new route along Indo-China border

Gangtok, Feb 1: In a bid to effectively safeguard the frontiers bordering China, the Centre has asked the Supreme Court for permission to construct a new 139 km-long road for carrying out operational preparedness and maintaining troops deployed along the Indo-China border in Sikkim.

In an application before the SC, the defence ministry submitted that the proposed road was essential from the defence point of view as the existing National Highway 31A was the only road connecting Sikkim to the rest of the country, Mail Today reported.

A clearance from the forest bench of the SC was required because a stretch of about 33km of the road is to pass through the Neora Valley National Park and the Pangolakha Wild Life Sanctuary in the east district of Sikkim.

The Supreme Court has been approached as the road to the Indo-China border will need clearing up of some forest areas.

The Flag Hill-Log Bridge- Madhubala Dokala road to be built by the Border Roads Organisation would pass through the sanctuary, where construction could be undertaken only after prior clearance from the SC as per its earlier orders.

Stressing on the importance of the road, the defence ministry said: "The construction of the road will facilitate building up of infrastructure in border areas for repulsing enemy incursions as well as to carry out combat operations."

The ministry said the decision to construct the road was taken after the special group known as China Study Group carried out a review of the international border with China and recommended "high operational preparedness".

One of the recommendations was laying down a communication network of roads to ensure faster mobility and operational preparedness, it added.

On the need for a road in addition to the NH 31A running through Chalsa-Khuniamore- Jaldhaka-Thode-Tangta-Rachela- Aritar, the ministry said the road would provide a "shorter avenue of approach" to reach East Sikkim and reduce the time required for troop deployment.

"The construction of this road would provide an alternative axis to East Sikkim enhancing the operational and logistic support of the troops in the area," the ministry said in the application.

The alternative access to Sikkim is crucial for the Indian Army to reach high altitude posts along the Tibet border.

The army's 33 corps based in Sukna, north Bengal covers Sikkim with division level presence in Gangtok, Binaguri and Kalimpong. It is also important for Siliguri corridor connecting north east with the rest of India

Editorial

TELANGANA AND GORKHALAND

Back To Square One?

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has once again asked the Centre to consider its demand for a Gorkhaland state if it takes into consideration creation of a separate Telangana. GJM general secretary Roshan Giri conveyed to Union Home Secretary RK Singh that the demand for Gorkhaland was one of the oldest in the country and the Centre cannot ignore it if it decides to create a separate Telangana.

After rejecting the GJM’s demand for a separate state of  Gorkhaland, carved out of West Bengal, the Government has constituted the Gorkha Territorial Administration with additional administrative and financial powers. The GJM’s fresh demand came after Congress said that it was not against formation of Telangana, but the Government was in the process of taking a decision. The Gorkhas may have their own justification in demanding statehood but in Andhra Pradesh’s fractured politics there are many parties which support the Telangana demand. If the Congress party takes a pro-Telangana stand it will be easy to carve a new state.

However, this is not so in West Bengal where both the ruling TMC and opposition CPI(M) are deadly against division of Bengal. GJM chief Bimal Gurung has threatened to pursue a more ‘militant’ path if the Centre and Bengal Government are not receptive to the demand if Telangana statehood is achieved. Gurung will surely get the backing of opposition parties in Darjeeling on the statehood demand. However, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seems determined to ensure that Bengal is united.