Gangtok, Nov. 5: The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, an umbrella organisation of Indian Gorkhas, has said the members of the community are not given proper recognition as citizens of the country.

The topic was broached today by the parisangh’s newly-constituted Sikkim state committee. The new executive committee replaces the earlier ad-hoc committee which had been working in the state.

Lobsang Lama is the new president of the parisangh in Sikkim while Narayan Bhattarai and Moti Rai are the vice-presidents. S. Pandey, who was the president of the ad-hoc committee, is now the general secretary while Samson Gurung is the secretary. Former bureaucrat and veteran journalist from Sikkim, C.D. Rai, has been named advisor of the body. Fifteen others have been inducted in the executive committee.

One of the chief demands of the parisangh is Gorkha Bas Bhoomi, a separate homeland for the Gorkhas living in the country. The body claims that while every community in the country is living in a state which is identified as their homeland, this was not so in the case of the Indian Gorkhas. The members also want a separate channel on Doordarshan in Gorkhali.