TN Govt will treat Lankan Tamils in camps as Tamils, not refugees

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said the state government would like to treat the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, staying in various refugee camps as Tamils of the state and provide them all facilities and not as refugees.

In an epitle to partymen, the Chief Minister, giving details of the Lankan Tamils staying in the state as refugees, said "they are not refugess, but Tamils, who had blood relations with the people of the state." To provide them permanent settlement in the state, the ruling DMK had adopted a resolution, urging the Centre to accord Indian citizenship and legally regularise their stay in the state.

After the resolution was adopted, he wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking his intervention on humanitarian grounds and enable permanent settlement to the refugees, he said.

He also suggested to the Prime Minister that once their stay is legally regularised, the state government would be able to take up necessary steps for the betterment of their livelihood, economically and socially.

However, when he happened to go through a Tamil magazine, which highlighted the plights of the refugees in the state, he was moved to tears. After spending a sleepless night, he had convened a high-level meeting and announced an allocation of Rs 12 crore to improve the facilities in the camps, besdies deputing his cabinet colleagues to visit the camps and present a report.

-- (UNI) -- 03MS46.xml

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