71 Tibetan families to be rehabilitated

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 26

As many as 71 Tibetan families who live in shacks behind the Tantia parking complex at Sanjauli would be shifted and rehabilitated at Maliana or Mehli area under the Prime Minister Awas Yojna.

Sources said the state Cabinet, which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, gave its nod to this proposal by the Shimla municipal corporation.

These families were displaced when the Tantia parking complex in Sanjauli was constructed. They have been living in shacks near the complex.

These Tibetan refugees had moved the High Court which directed the state government and the SMC to rehabilitate them.

SMC commissioner Pankaj Rai said the Tibetan families had given in writing that they were willing to be shifted to Maliana or other suitable place where the 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 Tibetan refugees were allotted camping space in Sanjauli, upper Dhalli and Panthaghati in the capital city when they, along with their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled Tibet in 1959 and subsequently thereafter. They had earlier lamented that the parking complex had displaced them and they faced danger during rains and snow as the tents were unsafe to live in.