The demand to give tribal status to Gurkhas was raised by the delegates who participated in the 68th annual general body meeting of All India Gorkha Ex Servicemen’s Welfare Association (AIGEWA) which ended here on Friday. The three-day meeting was presided over by its president Major VS Thapa (Rtd). The delegates demanded that categories of Gurkha community like Gurung, Rai, Newar, Mangar, Sunwar, Khas, Thami, Jogi, Yakha (Dewan), Bhujel and Dhimal should be provided the status of ST.
Major Thapa said that The AGM focused on reviewing the welfare programmes carried out by Associate Organisations and further measures to be adopted to approach and spread the ongoing welfare projects to most remote of community settlements. He added that the present approach and results obtained were discussed during the conference and many new ideas were highly appreciated by the Senior Officers and the observers which were present on the occasion.
The association claims that history of AIGEWA dates back to the beginning of Second World War when Gorkha soldiers were inducted into Indian Army and deployed to fight on three fronts of Europe , Asia and Africa. Their accounts of valour is well known and highly placed on records. At the end of the war on November 26 1950 AIGEWA was established with responsibility of carrying out the rehabilitation and resettlement of the demobilised soldiers who settled in India .
The AIGEWA through a systematic and planned rehabilitation/resettlement programme commenced its welfare oriented programmes in the country. Participants from Jammu, Pathankot, Bakloh, Shimla, Dharamshala, Nahan, Nautanva, Darjeeling, Shillong and Dehradun participated in the event.