Dharamshala: Being in the land of opportunity, the least one can do is to redeem one’s pecuniary obligations back home.
Forget the annual Green Book contribution, as many as 14 people have defaulted even on the (relatively) paltry sum of money advanced by the Central Tibetan Administration for the visa fees and air travel expenses of their families.
In the 1990s, when some 1,000 Tibetan families were successfully immigrated to the US, the administration advanced money for their visa fees and air travel expenses, as the families could not afford these at that point in time.
Over the years, although most of the families have repaid their amount to the administration, with full interest, dues to the tune of 1.56 million rupees are still pending from about 14 families.
In a public announcement, the Finance Department has now exhorted the 11 Tibetans–as three are already in touch with the Department–to clear their long-pending dues before the end of this November, without fail.
If the dues were not cleared within the allotted time, the deputy secretary of the Finance Department, Kelsang Phuntsok, said, “We will approach the Kashag to deliberate upon further course of action.”
A catalogue of the 11 Tibetans, released in all major Tibetan newspapers, official and private, showed them as being settled in New York, Minnesota, New Mexico, Chicago, Boston, Austin, Portland and Burlington, with one listed as unknown.
The following are the detailed official list of the defaulters with their amounts of loan;
1. Tsewang Phuntsok, Kathmandu, Nepal: (Loan: Rs. 88,328)
2. Nyima Dorjee, Bylakupee, India: (Loan: Rs. 95,651)
3. Tashi Phuntsok, Bandra, India: (Loan: 1,07,099)
4. Tsering Dhondup, Solokambu, Nepal: (Loan: Rs. 115,447)
5. Nyima Dhondup, Tashiling, Nepal: (Loan: 105,154)
6. Gyaltsen, Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, India: (Loan: Rs. 98,972)
7. Karma Tsering, Ladakh, India: (Loan: Rs. 111,438)
8. Tenzin, Delhi, India: (Loan: Rs. 129,622)
9. Gyaltsen Thonsang, Dharamsala, India: (Loan: 122,886)
10. Lobsang Chophel, Kullu Manali, India: (Loan: Rs. 126,597)
11. Tenzin Phuntsok, Bylakupee, India: (Loan: Rs. 125,561)
