THE OLD SETTLERS OF SIKKIM

JAC formed to pursue status for old settlers at par with Sikkim Subject holders

sikkim express Report

GANGTOK, August 4: A Joint Action Committee headed by Nagarik Sangrash Samiti president Prem Goyal has been constituted to pursue key issues pertaining to Indian citizens who have settled in Sikkim before the merger.

The JAC was set up during a meeting of ‘original Indian residents in Sikkim before April 26, 1975’ held yesterday at Gangtok. The meeting was to chalk out future course of action to get ‘status and rights’ at par with the Sikkim Subject certificate holders for those individuals and their families who had settled in Sikkim before the merger and do not have the Sikkim Subject Certificates.

Representatives from Sikkim Chamber of Commerce, Association of Old Settlers of Sikkim, Sikkim Bihari Jagaran Manch, Nagarik Sangrash Samiti and other citizens who fall under such category numbering around 200 had attended the meeting.

Satyanarayan Periwal had chaired the meeting which unanimously decided to form the JAC headed by Prem Goyal.

Goyal apprised the meeting that he has already filed a prayer petition in the Rajya Sabha last year requesting the intervention of the Union Government for ‘equal rights and status’ to those people in Sikkim who had settled in the State before the merger.

Goyal’s petition was supported by the meeting.

It was decided that the JAC will henceforth, will also work on the issue of income tax exemption for old settlers in Sikkim.