THE OLD SETTLERS OF SIKKIM

Pink Card is not a replacement of Sikkim Subject certificate: SDF

Sikkim Express | www.sikkimexpress.com

GANGTOK, July 28: Rejecting the allegations of the opposition political parties, the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) party has asserted that the Pink Cards slated to be distributed to the bonafide Sikkimese people are ‘not a replacement of the Sikkim Subject certificates’.
“Pink Card is not a replacement of Sikkim Subject certificates. It is like a smart card form of the Sikkim Subject certificates containing personal details of the holder”, said SDF spokesperson Bhim Dahal to reporters yesterday.
Defending the Pink Card drive of the State government, Dahal pointed out that even the Union government is in the process of distributing Unique Identification cards to the Indian citizens. We are all Indians but there are local rules everywhere and Sikkim is no exception and Pink Cards will be given to those holding Sikkim Subject certificates, he said.
The SDF spokesperson said that the Pink Card drive is a continuous process. The process will take 2 or 3 years to complete, he said.
The Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC) has been strongly objecting the Pink Card drive of the State government. It had warned the State government to launch a State-wide agitation if the Pink Card drive is not scraped by August 15.
Regarding the SPCC deadline, the SDF spokesperson said that the SPCC has been giving ultimatums to the State government for several years. They have not fulfilled anything, he said.
SDF functionaries KN Rai and KB Chamling said that the State government had conducted meetings at all levels to sensitize the people about the objectives behind the Pink Card drive.
The concerned department held meetings with the District Collectors of all the four districts who then briefed the sub-divisional authorities who sensitized the Zilla panchayats and gram panchayats, the duo said. The panchayats have briefed the people, they added.
Meanwhile, Matri Bhumi Suraksha Sanghathan (MBSS) today issued a press statement claiming irregularities between the statements of the SDF party and the concerned agency, the State Land Revenue department on the Pink Card issue.
The SDF party is saying that Pink Card is not a replacement for Sikkim Subject Certificate while the Land Revenue department is maintaining in its pamphlets that Pink Card is equivalent to Sikkim Subject certificate, said MBSS convener Duk Nath Nepal.
Nepal said that MBSS has been objecting to the Pink Card drive of the State government as the organization believes that the drive is an attempt to give validity to those 31,180 persons that have acquired Sikkim Subject certificates through fraudulent measures,
“What is to be seriously understood is about the fate of those people especially from neighbouring Darjeeling region who came to Sikkim in the late 70’s to work here. They spent their whole life here in service of Sikkim. Their children are born and brought up here in Sikkim and do not know about their ancestral homes outside Sikkim”, said Nepal.
“These people numbering to around 1 lakh do not have anything to show that they are from outside Sikkim or from Sikkim and now are without identity and the State government is least concerned about them and instead is focusing to give citizenship to people from other nations”, said the MBSS converner.