Eligible people to get RC "within a month or so" in Sikkim

Gangtok, Feb 8 (PTI) People eligible for the recentlynotified Residential Certificates in Sikkim will have to waita month or little longer to obtain it, official sources said.

These certificates, as per a state governmentnotification issued a couple of months back, is to be issuedto all those who have been residing in Sikkim since or before26 April 1975 or are permanent employees of the stategovernment, but do not have a Certificate of Identification[issued to Sikkim Subject Certificate holders and theirdescendents].

The matter is a hotly debated one between the rulingparty and those in the opposition, with the latter seeing itas something which will dilute the status of the Sikkimsubjects.

Explaining the reason why the RCs had not yet beenissued, a senior official at the District AdministrativeCentre [East] said that this was because the state governmentfirst wants the district authorities to complete theverification of Certificates of Identification.

"As things stand, this task is to be completed by 20February, but it is a major undertaking and could takelonger", the official said.

�After completing this verification of Sikkim SubjectCertificates and CoIs, we will proceed with issuing RCs,� theofficial said.

�Within a month or little longer we will be able toissue the first lot of RCs to the eligible applicants,� hesaid.

He said the authorities were currently working on theguidelines, shape, size, format, colour and other technicaldetails of the RCs.