By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, April 8: The Centre has extended welfare aid of ₹40 crores to the Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) under the Department of Home of the Dharamshala-based Tibetan government-in-exile up to the 2025-26 fiscal year, reported The Hindu. The scheme gives an annual grant of ₹8 crores to CTRC for administrative expenses of settlement offices and other welfare expenses for Tibetan refugees residing in India.
The report suggested that the Galwan incident in 2020 at the Indo-Tibetan border, where over 20 Indian soldiers were killed on the field, could be one of the factors for the continuation of the welfare aid. Biju Janata Dal party member Sujeet Kumar, who was recently appointed the new convener of the revived All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet, requested the Ministry of Home Affairs for details about resource allocation in the last five years.
Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra said in a written reply, “The entire amount of ₹40 crore (₹8 crore per annum) from 2016-17 to 2020-21 for this scheme has been released/reimbursed to the CTRC. The scheme has [now] been further extended for five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. An amount of ₹8 crore to CTRC has been released for the year 2021-22.” The NDA government, a political alliance led by right-wing BJP, set out a new policy in 2014 to sanction a scheme for ₹40 crores to CTRC to meet required administrative expenses for the displaced refugees.
“Employment generation and promoting self-reliance among the Tibetan populace has been the chief task of the Department since it came into being. People at the grassroots level have the right to either elect their own settlement/welfare officers or request appointees from the Home Department, CTA,” the CTA run website stated while highlighting the workings of the Home Department.
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Thank you India!