Dehradun: While party leaders are busy promising development, roads, good sanitation and clean drinking water to the citizens ahead of the civic body polls in the state, thousands of ‘vote-less’ Tibetans are living in the state with no basic facilities and none to plead for their demands.According to estimates, there are around 10,000 Tibetans in exile living in the state and more than half of them are in Dehradun. Tibetan colonies in Rajpur Road, Sahastradhara Road and Nalapani lack basic facilities.Most said that the councillors do not take notice of the localities as the Tibetan don’t vote , leaving them with no option but to approach the municipal corporation directly.Ngawn Choidhan, one of the Tibetans said that the community largely lives in seclusion and away from politics that’s why they generally do no approach the councillors or the mayors. “We do not vote nor do we indulge into politics that’s why even the local leaders do not approach us,” he said.A local Tibetan leader said that though they have voting rights and can take up the Indian citizenship, they don’t prefer to do so. “If we take up the Indian citizenship, it will hamper our struggle for freedom. Since we don’t have local ID’s, we can’t get government jobs. We are thus forced to take up business and other activities.”The traders in the Tibetan market, one of the biggest in the state, also said that the area needs regular cleaning and a permanent solution to traffic snarls. “We have approached many people with our demands but the area is still ridden with potholes which lead to jams every day. Though the civic body’s decision to relocate the Sunday Market help, but the area still needs to be developed,” said Tibetan market welfare association vice-chairman Karma Chodak.Officials at the civic body, however, said that the corporation provides facilities to all the areas without looking into who votes and who does not. “We try to extend our facilities to all the areas under our jurisdiction without any discrimination. However, it may be true that some councillors did not address their issues because they don’t vote but the corporation doesn’t have any biases,” said a DMC official.

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