Tibetan Settlement officers from across Nepal, Bhutan and India met in Dharamshala on July 12 for their 10th annual meeting.
Over 44 settlement officers participated in the four-day workshop which was organised by the Department of Home, Central Tibetan Administration, and held at the Tibetan Reception Centre in Dharamhsala.
Settlement officer’s meeting Photo: Tibettimes.net
The Home Kalon (or Minister of the Home department) Dolma Gyari, presided over the meeting, and the Representative of the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama based in New Delhi, Mr Tenpa Tsering was special guest.
Kicking off the meeting, Kalon Dolma Gyari said “Tibetans in exile must work in unison to channel the works and aspiration entrusted on us by the Tibetans in Tibet who cannot do anything under the repressive rule of Chinese government.” She also called attention to the commitment and hard work of all the settlement officers in the face of the deteriorating situation in Tibet.
Kalon Dolma Gyari also mentioned the importance of keeping good relationships with local Indians and other officials, and to promote these good relations with new officers to come. She said “We should be able to pass on the contacts and the relationships that you have built…to the new officers.”
Minister of the Home Department addressing the meeting Photo: Tibettimes.net
Mr Tenpa Tsering said that officers must be well informed on wide range of subjects such as Indian law, the Tibetan charter, social services, public administration, and international relations. He said that people are now becoming more educated and it is important for administrators to be well-educated in order to be effective.
Seven major points were discussed including: evaluation of the resolutions passed in the previous annual meeting; collection of information on the Tibetan demography of the various settlements; organising travel and lodging to the Kalachakra 2016 for elderly people, and fund raising to cover their expenses; responding to questions from the Public Auditing Committee of the CTA; implementation of the amended Housing and Land distribution rules in Tibetan settlements; establishing systems to gather funds to cover regional office expenses and for the development of the settlements; redistribution of empty houses and barren lands in settlements to homeless Tibetan refugees.
Tibetan Settlement Offices are the office of Tibetan Welfare Committee under the CTA’s Department of Home. There is a Settlement Office in every Tibetan settlement situated in Nepal, Bhutan and India, each headed by a settlement or welfare officer. Settlement officers are elected directly by the settlers in the big settlements, and for the small and scattered settlements they are appointed by the Department of Home. The main objective of the settlement office is to look after the welfare of the Tibetan refugees, integration of the Tibetan population into exile and the preservation of Tibetan culture and identity in their respective settlements.
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