Dharamshala: Tibetan Government-in-exile has written to the Government of India and chief medical officer of Kangra district regarding vaccination of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan people working around the Tibetan Spiritual leader.
Secretary health of the Central Tibetan Administration, Palden says, “We have written to the Indian government around two months back and of course as well as we have written to the chief medical officer of Kangra in Dharamsala, but so far we didn’t receive any reply from both sides. Our request was that His Holiness the Dalai Lama and people living around His Holiness palace in Mecleodganj (upper Dharamsala) be vaccinated at the earliest. We have also requested for vaccination of the whole Tibetan community living in India.”
Chief medical officer Dr. Gurdarshan Gupta says, “COVID vaccination campaign has been going on since 16th of January and the first priority group as per the government of India’s guidelines was healthcare and the frontline workers. A request was received from the central Tibetan government regarding vaccinating their people living around His Holiness the Dalai Lama including his holiness himself and at that time there was no provision of vaccinating other people.
We have sent the request to the government and permission has come. Modalities are being worked out. Since His Holiness The Dalai Lama is in self-quarantine for quite some time, we have received a request to vaccinate him on his own premises and it is under the consideration of the government. A decision will be taken soon and it will be done as per the protocol, said the Dr Gupta.
However, when district magistrate Rakesh Prajapati was contacted, he said “No permission is required. Everyone above 60 will be vaccinated. For HH Dalai Lama, we will be making special provisions.”
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
