By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, October 17: In a rare incident, the Kangra District Police have jailed a Tibetan student of TCV Gopalpur last month for failing to renew his Registration Certificate (RC), a document provided to every Tibetan refugee living in India which requires annual renewal, and registration on arrival and departure from each district.
It has been almost a month since Phuntsok, a ninth standard student from Gopalpur TCV School was arrested on September 22 for late renewal of RC and detained at the Kotwali Bazar Police Station.
The unfortunate incident occurred when the 18 year-old Phuntsok, whose RC was six months late for renewal, was reported to the senior authorities of the local Foreigner’s Registration Office.
His school has been working tirelessly for his release even after the first bail plea was denied.
Speaking to Phayul, Phuntsok Tashi, the Principal of the school, said that it was unfortunate to see him caught in the crossfire between the police and a few ill-behaved Tibetans. Prior to the arrest, they were few incidents of verbal argument between Tibetans and officials of the FRO which might have led to the strict regulation. Moreover, there was another arrest of a Tibetan woman who was late by years for RC renewal.
The Principal assured that the student is healthy but that his main concern is his losing out on his studies. “Since he is a student, my only worry for him right now is his studies. The final examination is nearing and we are trying every option at our disposal to free him.”
The principal sounded hopeful when he recalled a similar incident that occurred in 2013 at Mandi, where the matter was intervened by Ministry of Home Affairs (HMO) at the request of Home Minister of Tibetan exile government, Dolma Gyari.
After the incident, the Department of Security has distributed circulars on September 23 to all the Tibetan settlement officers in Kangra district and all the seven departments of the CTA urging all the Tibetans to abide by the law and renew the their RCs 15 days prior to the expiry date.
Citing the main content of the circulars, Kunga Tashi, Spokesperson of Department of Security said, “We had received a formal complaint from the Kangra SP’s office on May 30, 2014, which says there are many incidents where Tibetans are belittling the importance of RC and taking it lightly. Moreover many Tibetans are not renewing their RCs on time, which is against the law.”
