TNA seeks TN Chief Minister's help, writes Sinhala daily

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 00:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has appealed for assistance from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to help influence the Sri Lankan government to speed up the resettlement of the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and to develop the war ravaged north and east provinces, Sinhala daily Lakbima reported Thursday. According to Lakbima, the TNA is currently holding meetings with Indian leaders, in an effort to obtain the Indian government’s assistance to pressure the Sri lankan government into speeding up the resettlement of the IDPs.

The meeting between the TNA parliamentarians and Karunanidhi was held on Tuesday.

The TNA delegation had also complained that the recovery process of the war ravaged areas were going at snail pace, and appealed for the chief ministers assistance to help speed up the rebuilding process in the north and east provinces., the paper wrote.

The TNA delegation also expressed appreciation over karunandidhi’s suggestion to the central Indian government to send a fact finding mission to Sri Lanka to verify the reasons for the Lankan government to decided to reregister the IDPs, the report added.

The TNA delegation was led by R. Sampanthan and also included parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran. Selvam Adaikkalanathan, M.A. Sumanthiran, the Hindu reported covering the meeting.

The Hindu said futher: "Describing the meeting as “satisfactory,” the TNA leader said the Chief Minister had assured the delegation of all possible help.

"While a political settlement had to be arrived at [as a long-term measure], basic amenities must be provided now to internally-displaced Tamils," Hindu quoted Sampanthan as saying.

He complained that the work of building homes for the Tamils was going at a slow pace.

"Thanking the Indian government for providing financial assistance for rehabilitation of the Tamils, Mr Sampanthan said such measures had not been undertaken in many areas. Though a year had lapsed [since the end of the war], the displaced people were yet to lead their normal life. Sampanthan also called for an end to the attacks on fishermen of Tamil Nadu," Hindu said in its coverage of the TNA visit.

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Hindu:

“Internally displaced Tamils should be settled in original places”