Gangtok: Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling completes 20 years in office today. He is also the second longest serving CM in the country so far. If he does complete his tenure in 2019, he will become the longest serving CM in the country surpassing the record of Late Jyoti Basu who had served as West Bengal CM for 23 consecutive years.
Jyoti Basu served as West Bengal CM from June 21, 1977 to November 6, 2000.
Pawan Chamling, 64, of Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) took charge on December 12, 1994.
Since then he has never lost any elections and has been serving the state for the past four terms consecutively. This is his fifth term.
Chamling has proved to be an efficient leader with the Sikkim government undertaking various flagship programmes for making the tiny hill state a model state in the country.
According to an official release, Sikkim has become the leading state of producing organic fruits and vegetables with a total 58,168 hectare of land under organic cultivation.
It is also considered the most eco-friendly and greenest state in India.
In a country ranked poorly on the health and environment front, Sikkim has done remarkably well to become India's first state with 100 percent sanitation coverage, according to a report of the drinking water and sanitation ministry.
Pawan Chamling had launched a community-led total sanitation campaign in 1999 for achieving full sanitation in the 7,096 sq km area of the state.
The state has constructed 98,043 household latrines, surpassing the target of 87,014.
Of these - 61,493 latrines have been built for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
According to a total evaluation study conducted by the Planning Commission in 2013, Sikkim emerged with the best performing gram panchayats.
Under Pawan Chamling's reign this state has acquired number one position in the country in terms of schools, sanitary complexes and Aanganwadi centres.
