Pokhara, September 28

Gandaki Medical College has agreed to offer free treatment to retired Gurkha servicemen residing in India as well as their families in Pokhara.

Santosh Kumar Khanal, chief executive officer of the college and Colonel Mana Raj Singh Man, defence adviser at Embassy of India in Nepal, signed the agreement in Pokhara today. “All the pensioners and their family members will get all kinds of health services for free at our college,” said Khanal.

Earlier, Pokhara-based Manipal Hospital as well as other health facilities in Dharan and Kathmandu, among other cities, had agreed to offer the service. If the patients take a reference letter, they can get the free service from other health facilities, which have agreed to provide it across the country.

Retired Gurkha army personnel are required to take a health treatment card from the Embassy of India or their concerned pension camps, said colonel Singh. More than 65,000 pension holders along with their families will directly benefit from the ex-servicemen’s contributory health service.

There are 126,000 retired Gurkha servicemen across the country, of them, as many as 65,000 reside in the western region alone. “As the medical college is well established and has modern health facilities, thousands of people have benefited,” claimed Khanal.