New pension camp in Nepal to facilitate Gorkha soldiers

A new pension camp has been established in western Nepal's Palpa district, where the Bharatiya Gorkha sainiks can now get their pensions easily and on time.

Earlier, the Gorkha soldiers held meetings to discuss the issues of their interests.

During the meetings, the issue of pension collection used to be on top the list. But now, with the establishment of the pension camp, the problem has been solved.

Bidur Bahadur Thapa, a former Bharatiya Gorkha Sainik told ANI, "We use to face a lot of problems after we returned to Nepal. We used to go to the Kurahghat of Gorakhpur to receive the pension."

"In every three months or six months, we had to go to Kurahghat and come back and had to face a lot of problem. But after the establishment of the pension camp we have now much-eased access," added Thapa.

"The incurring expenses of going and returning back from Gorakhpur also decreased with increased saving, it is the second benefit. The third aspect of receiving pension from own territory, is that it makes us feel secure," he added.

"We are very much thankful to Government of India and also we expect ease in the cases of the family pensions. We would be more benefitted from the scheme. We have the main concerns for the family pension because the recruits before 1985 had no citizenship or formal identification documents and used to be recruited on a random basis," Thapa continued.

Tara Bahadur Rana, another Bharatiya Gorkha Sainik, highlighted the latest problems faced later.

He said, "After the introduction of the citizenship there were differences between the name used to address someone and the actual name and documented name. Those who were recruited before 1950 had problems in receiving the pensions."

The former Gorkha soldiers in Palpa have worked for Indian Army for over 35 years. With the pensions now received from the Indian side, they are able to go on with their daily needs and working out on their own economic sector of development.

Palpa district is home to about 1,000 Bharatiya Gorkha sainiks.