Sikkim

Gangtok, Aug 21 (PTI) Sikkim Health Minister Dr M K Sharma tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

The minister himself announced the news of his testing positive for COVID-19 in a brief Facebook post.

"I, Dr MK Sharma, Health Minister of Sikkim, would like to inform all the Sikkimese people that I developed symptoms of COVID-19 and got myself tested today and the results have come as positive," he said.

Sharma said that he was doing fine and confined himself in isolation.

Gangtok, Jul 2 (PTI) Twelve Army personnel in Sikkim have tested positive for coronavirus, taking the Himalayan state's tally to 101, a top official of the Health department said on Thursday.

Director General-cum-Secretary, Health, Dr Pema T Bhutia said that these 12 Army men, said to br primary contacts of their 40 year-old colleague who had tested positive on June 23, were tested for COVID-19 and their results have come positive.

These 12 army men as well as their 40 year-old colleague have been shifted to the Army hospital at Bagdogra, Bhutia said.

Gangtok, Dec 9 (PTI) Amid nationwide outrage over the recent cases of rape and murder, the Sikkim Police has launched a free ride scheme under which any woman in the state capital who is alone and unable to find transport services at night will be dropped home in a vehicle free of cost.

The scheme, launched by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang on Sunday, is aimed at ensuring women's safety at odd hours, an official said.

Gangtok/Kolkata, Aug 27 (PTI) The Sikkim government has urged the Centre to withdraw its notification which opened up 24 peaks of the state to mountaineers, a top official said.

The Centre has recently allowed mountaineering and trekking in 137 peaks across the country, including 24 peaks in Sikkim, in a bid to boost tourism.

Gangtok, Aug 15 (PTI) Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang on Thursday pledged to "protect and conserve" Article 371(F) of the Constitution, which provides special status to the tiny border state

Tamag, better known as Golay, also said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured him that the rights granted to the state will not be tinkered with

New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) As many as 10 MLAs of the Sikkim Democratic Front joined the BJP on Tuesday, propelling the saffron party to the status of the main opposition in a state where it had not won a single seat in the recent assembly polls.

The MLAs met BJP working president J P Nadda and joined the party in the presence of its general secretary Ram Madhav, who is in charge of the party's affairs in the north east.

Madhav told reporters that the SDF had a strength of 13 MLAs and its legislature party decided to merge with the BJP.

Gangtok, May 27 (PTI) Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) president Prem Singh Tamang, popularly known as P S Golay, on Monday took oath as the chief minister of Sikkim.

Eleven SKM MLAs were also administered the oath by Governor Ganga Prasad at Paljor Stadium here.

Golay, who is not a member of the state assembly at present as he did not contest the polls, was elected as the SKM Legislature Party leader on Saturday.

Gangtok Mar 15 (PTI) The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) on Friday called off its nascent alliance with the BJP and decided to contest all assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim.

"The SKM will field candidates on all 32 assembly seats and lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim," the SKM spokesperson Sonam Bhutia said.

Gangtok, Dec 29 (PTI) The Indian Army has rescued more than 2,500 tourists stranded near East Sikkim's 17th Mile area, close to the India-China border, due to heavy snowfall, officials said Saturday.

The tourists were returning from Nathu La pass and Tsomgo (Changu) Lake on Friday evening when snowfall in the region blocked roads, leaving over 300 to 400 civil vehicles stranded at various points on Jawahar Lal Nehru Road, East Sikkim District Magistrate Kapil Meena said.