By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Feb 28: 71 Tibetan families living in Sanjauli are to be shifted and rehabilitated at Maliana or Mehli area under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, reports The Tribune. The families live in shacks behind the Tantia parking complex at Sanjauli, Shimla.
The state Cabinet, which met on Wednesday under the chairmanship of CM Jai Ram Thakur, gave its approval to the proposal by the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC). These families were displaced when the Tantia parking complex was built in Sanjauli; they have been living in shacks near the complex ever since.
The affected Tibetans had moved the High Court which directed the state government and the SMC to rehabilitate them. SMC commissioner Pankaj Rai said that the families had given in writing that they were willing to be shifted to Maliana or other suitable place where land was available. “The proposal is in preliminary stage. We have proposed to re-settle them under the PM Awas Yojna,” he added.
Shimla Mayor Satya Kaundal said the corporation would resettle them in “pucca houses once the housing project is finalised.” The residents were allotted the camping space in Sanjauli, upper Dhalli and Panthaghati in the capital after they fled Tibet. They had earlier bemoaned the displacement they had faced due to the parking complex and faced danger during rain and snow owing to unsafe tents they lived in.
