Gangtok, July 06: Enthused by the recent border trade agreement between India and China through Sikkim, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling will go to New Delhi later this month to urge Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to start a regular bus service between Gangtok and Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. This is part of the chief minister's agenda for his Delhi visit scheduled for July 22, his political advisor B B Gooroong, who will accompany him, said here today.
"Our perception is that a regular bus service between the state capital and Lhasa will go a long way in bringing the two countries still closer," he said. The modalities for this will be worked out at the chief minister's meeting with the Prime Minister, his first after China agreed on reviving the trade route through Nathula in east Sikkim, Gooroong said.
Security measures and infrastructural activities to be taken up in the state besides its immediate environmental concerns in the wake of the trade agreement are the other major points of the agenda to be discussed with the Prime Minister, he added. Security measures might include keeping a check on the possible influx after opening of the trade route, the number of new checkposts to be set up and the demographic structure of the state which the state government wants to keep intact, Gooroong said. Bureau Report