For elders, Sikkim matters

SIKKIM SENIOR CITIZENS’ SOCIETY CONVENES SECOND GENERAL BODY MEETING
GANGTOK, 23 Nov: The second General Body Meeting of Sikkim Senior Citizens’ Society was held at MLA Hostel Hall on 21 November. Justice (Retd.) AP Subba was present as the chief guest for the meeting presided over by former Chief Secretary and president of the organization, KC Pradhan.
As per a press release, forty members from all districts attended the four-hour long meeting. The deliberations covered all significant issues currently being faced by people in the state with special reference to senior citizens.
The release mentions that the most heated discussion revolved around LPG cylinders, its transfer, KYC, non-availability, distribution and the plight of the common people. A committee has been formed to discuss this issue with the concerned authority with a view to bring home the difficulties currently faced by the people and find remedial measures for systematic regularization, distribution and delivery. In view of winter months already setting in and Sikkim being a hilly state with cold climate the need for immediate redressal was highlighted.
Other matters ranged from social issues like drugs and suicides, slum-dwellers within Gangtok Municipal Corporation and their rehabilitation, traffic congestion and need for alternate highways and road-ways, maintenance of roads, organic farming and its proper understanding for better dissemination to the people at large and its inclusion in School curriculum, issue of Identity Cards to senior citizens duly indicating the benefits already being provided by the government, the influx of migrant population and its impact on the society and ways to tackle them also came into focus, the release informs.
Committees have been formed headed by senior competent members to study each of the issues threadbare and put up proposals for further deliberation and concretization before submission to the government for their consideration, the release mentions.
The body also felt the need to form sub-committees headed by senior members with leeway to select their own team from all strata of the society and directed the Executive Committee to put these sub-committees into operation at the earliest. The role of one of the committees is Intergenerational Interactions with a view to obtain the views of the younger citizens and incorporate them in the overall scheme.
Earlier, Justice Subba gave an insight on the Maintenance & Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act. 2007 promulgated by the Government of India and all the members felt the need for its enforcement in Sikkim as well and resolved to approach the Government for its expeditious enforcement.
Also, one of the senior members expressed his concern over the disintegration and divisionism in the communities/ society and expressed that the organization should find ways and means with a view to bind all sections of the society together for the long term interest of the state. He specifically called for consensus to make all Sikkim Subject Holders and their immediate descendents as Tribals with a view to bring a sense of oneness and belongingness in the interest of the future generations.
It was informed that the state government has recently taken up with the Central Government the matter of bringing all the left-out ethnic groups under the Scheduled Tribe Status. The views were well appreciated and the issue being a complex one, the body was of the opinion that a core committee consisting of representatives of various sections of the community that matter should be constituted to examine the matter in greater depth and put up their views for further deliberation, the release adds.
The next General Body Meeting is resolved to be held in the first week of May 2013.