Himalayan Times (1962)

Two

Himalayan Times

January 28, 1962

CASH DOLES FOR TIBETAN REFUGEES

Mysterious Action of Tibetan Association

Darjeeling, January 24.

Mystery surrounds the
deuisicn of a Tibetan
Welfare Association to
distribute oaBb doles of
Bs. 3D to each bona fide
Tibetan refugee in Kalim-
pong and Darjealing who
had orossed over after the
March uprisiug in Lhasa
in 1959. This payment is
being made, to enable
the refugees to celebrate
their Loser or New Year's
Day which falls on Feb
ruary 8.

As far as oan be
ascertained the amount,
suspeoted to have been
reoeived from the Fornio-
san Government, is being
paid through an associa-
tion so long defunct, but
believed to have .been
revived recently by some
sympathizers of the Kuo-
mintang regime. The doles
have already been paid
to several hundred Tibetan
refugees after verification
of their passports. Those
holding Chinese visas or
suspected to be pro
Communists are being
excluded. Initally au
amount of about Rs. 6 000
has been paid, it is under-
stood, to the refugees who
an required to have tneir
photographs taken with
■ihe money in their hands.

Recently a person
believed to be a KMT
agent arrived in Kalim-
pond with more funds
and fresh distribution of
doles there has commenced
siuoe yesterday.

Currently lists are being
made of I ibetan relugees
in Darjeeling, with a
promise Jjbat they will be
paid their doles soon. It
is understood that these
transactions are being
done without official Go-
vernment knowledge, nor
does there seem to be any
officials in the welfare
body.

GRANT FOR WELFARE OF
SCHEDULED THIBES

Calcutta, Jan. 24
The State Government
have taken up a phased
programme for training in
Sericulture during the
Third Five Year Plan
period lor the. Welfare of
foheduled Tribes, at a
total estimated oust of
Rs. 1 25,000.

Kalimpong Subdivi-
sion is found to b» very
suitable fir rearing silk
worms of high yielding
foreign races. Experi-
ments in this respect con-
ducted in the State Go-
vernment nurseries have

proved to be quit* suc-
cessful.

Sericulture which is
the second biggest oottage
industry of West Bengal
if introduced in this re-
gion is expected to help
them to supplement their
poor income. The villagers
of Kalimpong subdivision
with extremely favourable
climatic condition are
detinitely in a better po-
sition to raise high silk
yielding cocoons by rear-
ing silk worm races im-
ported from Japan, China,
Russia etc. and acclima-
tised in the Foreign Race
Seed Station at Kalim-
pong.

At present it is in-
tended to make a modest
beginning with a few
pioneers so that the object
of intensifying the deve-
lopment ot aerioulture in
the hill regions may ulti-
mately meet with success.

The objnot of the
present scheme is to im-
part training in sericulture
to the boys and girls be-
longing to Soheduled Cas
tes and ribal communi-
ties, so that in the long
run these people oan take
up terioulture as a subsi-
diary occupation in order
to improve their .living
standard.

As a preliminary mea-
sure, the State Govern
ment have allotted Rs.
10.000/- towards the par-
tial execution of the scheme.