Sikkim dealers irked by Sikitex 2009

Gangtok: Keeping its objective of development in the field of IT in mind, the government of Sikkim had organized Sikitex'09, its annual IT expo in the state capital of Gangtok in September.

Rajesh Verma, Principal Director-IT, Government of Sikkim declared, “The government has placed IT, very high on its agenda. We aim to empower citizens through e-governance. With this in mind, the Department of IT organized Sikitex 2009, a two-day IT fair and exhibition.”

However, neither the government nor the vendors issued any participation notice to any of the dealers in the state, even though it is primarily the dealers who are driving business in the area.

“We did not receive any participation call from either the IT or commerce departments. The vendors did not push for our involvement. Although Sikitex 2009 was a huge success, we feel deprived because we did not participate,” said Arun Kumar Singh of Tadong-based Bright Computers.

“It would have been in the interest of the vendors themselves had they approached us for the expo. The vendor representatives, who were manning the stalls during the event lacked local market knowledge. Had we been in their place, we could have handled sales in the expo better,” Singh added.

Sharing a similar point of view, Gangtok-based Jeevan Bajoria of Punam Sales and Stationery said, “We received guest invitations from the IT department in Sikitex 2009 to discuss the state of IT and emerging technologies in Sikkim. However, I feel that we should have been given the opportunity to participate in the expo.”

On condition on anonymity, a dealer in Gangtok opined, “There is little unity among the dealers here. Everyone is busy with their own business and no one is interested in forming

an association or initiating an expo. Planning an expo takes a lot of time, effort and unity and Sikkim traders lack all of these. So I think that forming an association or planning for an expo is a distant possibility.'

Despite the problem amongst dealers, the sta is making a serious attempt to revive IT. The SWAN in Sikkim is fully functional and is popularizing the use of IT here. Official records have claimed that in the last seven years, the state IT department has provided computer training to 15,000, citizens including government officials and unemployed youth. Initiatives have also been taken to educate political personalities about the benefit of IT.

In the expo, Narendra Kumar Pradhan, IT Minister, Government of Sikkim had declared, “The state government has taken the initiative to establish 45 community information centers besides hosting citizen-centric websites. Land records and VAT regulations are also online.”

“The rich biodiversity and old heritage records in monasteries would be inventoried.  Sikkim has high literacy and therefore we are hoping that it would emerge as the next BPO destination,” he concluded.