The annual Sino-India border trade at Nathu La, which was to be reopened today, has been postponed following the Commerce Ministry's communique to the Sikkim government, official sources said here. "We have received a fax message from the Union Commerce Ministry late last evening informing about the postponement of the reopening of the border trade at Nathu La,' the District Collector (East) Vishal Chauhan told PTI here. The reopening of annual trade at Nathu La may take place on May 19, he said.

In reply to a question in Lok Sabha on April 21, 2008, the Food and Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar admitted that while a total of 102.8 million ration cards against BPL (below poverty line) people were issued, there were actually in the country only 65.2 million BPL families. It means that 37 million below poverty line-card holders or as much as 35 per cent of India's total number of beneficiaries under public distribution system do not exist in actuality.

distressed over the Sikkim government's "failure' to scrap a series of dams planned on the river Teesta and its tributaries in North Sikkim district, anti-dam activists have launched a second round

The Northeastern States have urged the Centre to build power projects in the region under the

Sikkim Government is gearing up to send a high-level glaciologists' team to study the meltdown of the glaciers in Sikkim due to global warming and to find out remedies. The team led by Professor S I Hasnain and accompanied by officials and members of various project teams, would visit west Sikkim to study the state of East Rathong glacier during their nine-day expedition starting from April 24, an official said. Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling had set up a commission under Hasnain to study the state of glaciers late last year, the official said.

The ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) today criticised social activist Medha Patkar for lending support to the opponents of the hydel power projects in the State, including one at Dzongu in North Sikkim and said her utterances were