Sherpas contest Chamling stand on land rule

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, Aug 23, 2018, Gangtok: The Denzong Sherpa Association (DSA) on Wednesday questioned Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling for suggesting that bringing the Sherpas under the purview of the pre-merger revenue order number one, which provides land protection to the Bhutias and Lepchas, would compromise Article 371F of the Constitution that gives special status to Sikkim.

DSA spokesman Pasang Sherpa said the Sherpas fundamentally were accepted by the erstwhile kingdom of Sikkim as being part of the larger Bhutia community, and excluding them from the revenue order number one was a travesty of justice.

"Our demand is that the land of the Sherpas should be protected under the pre-merger rule, and not under the law framed by the state government recently," he said.

The state government recently amended the Sikkim Regulation of Transfer of Land Act, 2005, protecting land holdings of different communities, including the Sherpas, by which plots can be sold only within the members of the same community.

However, the DSA wants the Sherpa land to be protected under the pre-merger law.

The chief minister has, however, repeatedly asserted that changing the pre-merger law would violate the sanctity of Article 371F of the Indian Constitution, which came into being following the merger of Sikkim with India in 1975.

As recently as Wednesday, Chamling said his government had managed to protect the Sherpa land without diluting the Article 371F, in particular clause k of the Article.

Clause k of the Article reads: all laws in force immediately before the appointed day in the territories comprised in the State of Sikkim or any part thereof shall continue to be in force therein until amended or repealed by a competent legislature or other competent authority.

The DSA spokesman said Chamling's claim that protecting the Sherpa land under the pre-merger rule would dilute Article 371F was a fallacy.

"There are many pre-merger rules that have been either amended or scrapped, including the Registration of Companies Act Sikkim, 1961. The Companies Act Sikkim will be superseded by the Companies Act, 2013 of the government of India by December this year, but the Chamling government has not raised a voice against it till date. Is that not a violation of Article 371F then?" asked Sherpa.

Sherpa dared the chief minister, leaders of all political parties and legal experts to have an open debate on how the sanctity of the special constitutional provision for Sikkim will be violated by incorporating the Sherpas under revenue order number one.

"When the chief minister can do nothing for the Sherpa community, he should stop talking about us," he said.