DHARAMSHALA:  Mr S.V Ranganath, Chief Secretary to the government of Karnataka state assured continued support to Tibetan settlements in Karnataka at a meeting held on 20 May in Bangalore.

The meeting was attended by the secretaries of Department of Home, Revenue, Rural development and Panchayat Raj, the Chief Conservator of Forest, Bangalore, Managing director of Karnataka power transmission corporation Ltd and many concerned district officers.  

Mr. Sonam Topgyal Khorlastang, Home secretary, Mr. Chemi Rinzin Additional Secretary, Chief Representative (south zone), 5 Tibetan settlement officers of south India and Chairman and CEO of Federation of Tibetan Cooperative Societies in India (FTCI) attended the meeting from the Tibetan side.

Mr Sonam Topgyal Khorlatsang, Secretary of Home department, Central Tibetan Administration expressed his deep gratitude to the government and people of Karnataka for their continued support to the Tibetans living in Karnataka for over 50 years. He also requested that such meetings be held  on yearly basis to address the various problems of Tibetans living in Karnataka.  

In the meeting many issues related to Tibetans in Karnataka were discussed including long pending issue of RTC (Pahani) provision to the Mundgod, Kollegal and Hunsur Tibetan settlements and problems of power supply , scarcity of  potable drinking water supply , repairs of internal roads in the settlements and  problem of return NORI permission.

The chief secretary assured that the concerned departments of the state government will look into these issues on priority and asked them to provide every possible assistance and support to the Tibetans living in Karnataka state.

This is the second such meeting held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary of Karnataka government since the last meeting was held in the year 2010.