Dharamshala: Among the extensive list of unprecedented chaos and loss of lives suffered globally, the spread of the Wuhan-originated COVID-19 has also caused disruptions and delay in the functions and proceedings of governments and administrations worldwide.
A month ahead of the 10th session of the 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker announced this morning that the session is postponed until March 2021.
“This decision has been taken considering the rising urgency situation across the world caused by COVID-19 which originated in Wuhan, China,” said Speaker Pema Jungjey addressing the press here at Dharamshala.
“We were bound to take this decision as we have to take responsibility especially when His Holiness the Dalai Lama resides here in Dharamsala. And even if the session is held supposedly, because of the current international travel ban Tibetan Parliamentarians from outside of India will not be able to attend the session and Tibetan Parliamentarians in India too might find it difficult to travel with the ongoing pandemic,” he added.
Although the September session shall not be convened, matters and proceedings related to the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile are slated to be executed without any negligence.
As such, the annual reports of the CTA’s main offices and of its institutions for the fiscal year 2019-2020 is being reviewed by the members of the Standing Committee. Accordingly, questions raised on the annual reports by the Standing Committee will be submitted to the respective departments through the Kashag Secretariat.
All the departments are required to submit, via email, their précis annual reports and clarification to the questions raised by the Standing Committee in PDF format to the Parliamentary Secretariat before 20 September 2020.
Following which, the Parliamentarians’ questions on the précis reports should be submitted to the Parliamentary Secretariat before 15 October.
The questions shall then be submitted to the Kashag Secretariat, from where the clarifications by the Administration are to be submitted back to the Parliamentary Secretariat before 31 October.
All the questions raised and the clarifications provided for the annual and its précis reports of the CTA’s main departmental offices and institutions will be digitally available on the official website of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile (tibetanparliament.org) for the information of the general public.
The move to postpone the upcoming session was effected at the 327th Standing Committee meeting on 13 August 2020, in due accordance with Article 6 and clause 2 of Article 49 of the Charter of Tibetans in exile.
Speaker Pema Jungney of Tibetan Parliament in Exile delivers the official press statement regarding the postponement of the 10th session of the 16th Tibetan Parliament till March 2021. Photo/TPiE
Deputy Speaker Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok of Tibetan Parliament in Exile delivers the official statement in English. Photo/TPiE
Members of the Tibetan press at the briefing. Photo/TPiE