By IANS,
Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh government has virtually indicated that it has no official figure on the number of exiled Tibetans settled in the state.
This came even as the officials involved in the census Wednesday claimed that counting the country’s population included the count of exiles staying in the state.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, in a written reply in the state assembly Tuesday, said no exercise was conducted to know the number of the Tibetans in the state.
Balbir Tegta, director of census operation in Himachal Pradesh, told IANS: “The census operation comes under the purview of the central government. The state is generally not conducting the census.”
Tegta said all those staying in India, including the Tibetans, for the past six months or more have been included in this census.
Even spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had appealed to the Tibetan community living in India to cooperate with census officials when the census began last year.
The Dalai Lama has also provided details to the census officials. He registered his name and other details in the second phase of the census at his official residence in Dharamsala Feb 20.
The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. An estimated 34,000 Tibetan refugees are living in 14 settlements in different parts of Himachal Pradesh. India is home to a total of some 100,000 Tibetans.