Gangtok, July 19: Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling today thanked Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the recent border trade agreement between India and China through Nathula and said that a process of infrastructural reconstruction in the state was a must to make the most of this pact for the benefit of the whole country. In his vote of thanks at the conclusion of the second day's proceedings of the two-day monsoon session of the state assembly today, the chief minister thanked the Prime Minister for the breakthrough achieved in Sino-Indian relations in the form of the border trade agreement through Sikkim which he described as an "implicit Chinese recognition of the tiny Himalayan state as part of India."

Expressing the happiness of the members of the house and the people of the state over the trade pact between the two countries, the chief minister said his government now hoped that much more would have to be done especially in the infrastructure sector in Sikkim to reap maximum benefits of the agreement both for the state and the rest of the country.

He said that the state government had prepared a list of its requirements in the wake of the agreement in the infrastructure sector including building of an alternative highway connecting Sikkim with West Bengal, construction of an airport at Pakyong and launch of a bus service between Gangtok and Lhasa, which he will submit to the prime minister when he visits New Delhi soon.
Bureau Report