Khandu provides relief to Tawang Monastery

Itanagar, Sep 15 (UNI) Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu has provided Rs 10 lakh as relief fund for repairing the historical Tawang Monastery, a part of which was damaged in a fire in May.

Official sources here today said the Chief Minister handed over the cheque to the monastery authorities at Tawang yesterday and urged them to take utmost care of the four-century-old centre of Buddhist culture, pilgrimage and tourism.

Mr Khandu, who was on a four-day official visit to the district, also offered prayers and interacted with the abbot and other senior monks of the monastery.

Referring to the Rs five crore corpus fund provided by the state government for smooth running of the monastery, the Chief Minister informed that out of the total amount, Rs four crore had already been sanctioned to the monastery while Rs 50 lakh each was sanctioned to two nunneries in the district.

He, however, stressed on the need to generate income within the monastery by various means to meet the daily requirements.

Meanwhile, Mr Khandu also visited the Thongmey-Thongmin Gompa to gather first hand knowledge of the infrastructure and other requirements to boost tourism.

He also visited the under-construction OPD building of the Tawang Hospital to take stock of its progress and handed over a cheque of Rs 70 lakh as his personal contribution, sources informed.

It may be recalled that Dalai Lama had initiated the OPD of the hospital by contributing Rs 20 lakh a few years ago.

UNI