First lot of Residential Certificates to be issued within a month

GANGTOK, 08 Feb: People eligible for the recently notified Residential Certificates will have to wait a month or little longer to secure one for themselves. These certificates, as per a State Government notification issued a couple of months back, is to be issued to all those who have been residing in Sikkim since before 26 April 1975 or are permanent employees of the State Government, but do not have a Certificate of Identification [issued to Sikkim Subject Certificate holders and their descendents].
The matter, anyone who has been following political developments in Sikkim will recall, is a hotly debated one between the ruling party and those in the Opposition, with the latter seeing it as something which will dilute the status of the Sikkim Subjects. This, of course, has been dismissed by the State Government, with the Chief Minister often detailing that the RC is not at par with Sikkim Subjects.
As for the reason why the RCs have not yet been issued, a senior official at the District Administrative Centre [East] informs that this is because the State Government first wants the district authorities to complete the verification of Certificates of Identification. As things stand, this task is to be completed by 20 February, but it is a major undertaking and could take longer.
“After completing this verification of Sikkim Subject Certificates and CoIs, we will proceed with issuing RCs,” the official said, adding, “Within a month or little longer we will be able to issue the first lot of RCs to the eligible applicants.”
He further informed that the authorities are also currently working on the guidelines, shape, size, format, colour and other technical details of the RCs.
SUBASH RAI