Future Policy Award: Sikkim Krantikari Morcha Demand White Paper
Guwahati: The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) today while interacting with the media at a Press Conference here, welcomed the Future Policy award presented to Sikkim for its organic mission but stressed that the award being projected as granted by the UN is misleading.
Speaking to media here, SKM spokesperson Jacob Khaling said claims of the award presented to the state by the UN, is ‘misleading and a lie’. The award is given by a charitable foundation World Future Council which relies on private and institutional donations under the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, he said.
According to Khaling, the Future Policy award is co-organised by the World Future Council, FAO and IFOAM-Organics International with support from other organisations. Hence the award is not from the UN, he said.
The SKM spokesperson was firm on the fact that the narrative of the UN award is a deceptive strategy from the State government to shift focus from the financially unsustainable yield of the agricultural products and market failures. He further said that the government has failed to facilitate the genuine and sincere farmers of the State and motivate them by introducing the minimum support price (MSP).
Khaling also warned the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) government not to try gain political mileage from the award. While raising questions on the presence of Vandana Shiva, the founder of ‘Navdanya’ Non-Government Organisation (NGO), in every award function of the Chief Minister, he said "Vandana charges fee for speaking in programmes and her NGO has an international branch at Rome where the Chief Minister received the Future Policy award."
The State government must issue a white paper to attest the genuineness of the Future Policy award and make public the details on expenditure with respect to awards, transportation and other expenses, demanded.
The Press conference was also addressed by SKM functionaries Bikash Basnet, Navraj Gurung and Abhishek Sharma in presence of party general secretary Arun Upreti.
It is noteworthy, that Sikkim was presented with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Future Policy Award 2018 for being the world's first 100 per cent organic state. Sikkim defeated 51 nominated policies from 25 countries, winning the Gold Prize of the Future Policy Award 2018, also known as “Oscar for Best Policies”. Silver Prize 2018 was awarded to the policies from Brazil, Denmark and Quito (Ecuador). All the winners received the awards in a ceremony on October 15, 2018 at FAO headquarters during the celebrations of the World Food Week in Rome.