Dalai Lama asks Tibetans to cooperate with census officials

DHARAMSALA - The Dalai Lama has appealed to the Tibetan community living in India to cooperate with census officials counting the country’s population, an aide said Saturday.

“The Dalai Lama has issued an appeal to all the Tibetans living in exile (in India) to assist the officials in completing the population census,” Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary in the Dalai Lama’s office, told IANS.

He said the Dalai Lama himself provided details to the census officials who visited him Friday.

Kangra district Deputy Commissioner R.S. Gupta said that all Tibetans residing in India for the past six months or more would be included in the census.

Balbir Tegta, director of census operation in Himachal Pradesh, said “it is a must to register all those staying in India for more than six months”.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. Some 34,000 Tibetan refugees are settled in 14 settlements in different parts of Himachal Pradesh. India is home to a total of some 100,000 Tibetans.