Gangtok (Sikkim), Apr 25: Political parties have made education a key poll issue in Sikkim to woo young voters.

Youth in the age group of 19-29 years form 40 percent of the total 3,00,584 voters listed in the electoral rolls here.

Many voters want education in the state to improve so that they are not compelled to leave the state to acquire better education.

They stress on improvement of primary education.

Gangtok (Sikkim), Apr 18 : Authorities in Gangtok, Sikkim, have said that it will take two to three days to recover the bodies of twelve workers who drowned after the Rangpo Dam collapsed earlier this week.

Rangpo Dam is located near Rongli in East Sikkim District.

According to the officials, the tunnel is flooded with the gushing waters of the River Rongli, and efforts are still being made to retrieve the 12 bodies.

The length of the tunnel is about 1100 meters.

Gangtok, Mar 30 : Sikkim is blooming these days with ongoing orchid flower festival 2009'.

The flower show commenced on March 21 at the exhibition center of Gangtok.

The flower show is already a hit with the visiting tourists as well as the resident, who are thronging the venue. The show is also drawing foreign tourists in droves.

"These flowers are just amazing and very beautiful. They are perfect. I just love them", said Marina, tourist from Moscow.

Pakyong (Sikkim), Feb 28 : Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has acknowledged the need for better air connectivity to ensure economic development of remote areas like Sikkim.

Addressing a gathering after performing the Bhumi Pujan for proposed airport at Pakyong near Gangtok in Sikkim on Saturday, he said that air connectivity would facilitate transportation of tourist as well as agricultural and horticultural products of hill states to national and international markets.

A BJP-Congress government has interesting possibilities, but is impractical

A small news item that appeared in the papers last week may have slipped by most readers. It reported how the Congress, the BJP and the CPM had all joined hands in Sikkim to form the United Democratic Front, an electoral arrangement that will fight the Sikkim Democratic Front led by chief minister Pawan Chamling in the elections later this year. Sikkim politics barely makes news nationally. But this was an intriguing bit of news — the three political parties who are at loggerheads in a tie-up!