Centre extends ₹40 crore relief to Dalai Lama’s Tibetan Committee upto 2025-26

What is the News?

The Union government has extended the scheme to provide Rs.40 crore grants-in-aid to the Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) for another five years, up to the fiscal year 2025-26.

Scheme to provide grants-in-aid to the Central Tibetan Relief Committee(CTRC) 

Launched in: 2015

Purpose: To provide an annual grant of Rs.8 crore to CTRC to meet the administrative expenses of Settlement Offices and social welfare expenses for Tibetan refugees staying in Tibetan settlements spread across 12 States/UTs in the country.

What is the Central Tibetan Relief Committee(CTRC)?

Type: It was formed and registered as a Charitable Society under the Indian Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.

Objective: To coordinate Individual, Voluntary Agencies and the Indian Government’s efforts to rehabilitate and settle Tibetan Refugees.

Members: It includes members from each of the 53 Tibetan settlements in India, Nepal and Bhutan.

All the CTRC activities are carried out with consent and support from the Board of Directors and approval from TPiE(Tibetan Parliament in Exile).

What is the Tibetan Parliament in Exile(TPiE)?

TPiE is the unicameral and highest legislative organ of the Central Tibetan Administration, the government-in-exile of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. 

Based in: Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.

Tibetans in India

Tibetan refugees began pouring into India in the wake of the flight of the Dalai Lama from Tibet in 1959. 

The Indian government decided to give them asylum as well as assistance towards temporary settlement.

More than one lakh Tibetan refugees are currently settled in India. The major concentration of the Tibetan refugees are in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.

Source: This post is based on the article “Centre extends ₹40 crore relief to Dalai Lama’s Tibetan Committee upto 2025-26” published in The Hindu on 6th April 2022.