Indian aid to be ‘directly disbursed’ - Chidambaram

Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said India was considering directly disbursing the financial aid it has proposed to give to the war-displaced people in Wanni for their housing project.

India has already announced an aid package of Indian Rs 1,000 crores (About US $215 million) to build about 50,000 homes for the people who have lost their homes in the final stages of the war in Northern Province.

Talking to the media in Chennai on Sunday, the Home Minister said both Indian and Sri Lankan governments were now considering “ways and means” of directly disbursing the money to the heads of families through banks, instead of routing the money through the Government of Sri Lanka.

He said the Sri Lankan government had agreed to this idea. This will be done with the “cooperation” of Sri Lanka government, he said.

An amount of Indian Rs 200,000 each would be given to about 50,000 heads of families under the Indian project, he said.

Mr. Chidambaram said the Sri Lankan government had promised that these families would be resettled in the next three to six months.

Earlier, the Home Minister briefed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on the meetings the Indian leaders had with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksha in Delhia few days ago.

Asked whether the Indian Government was not aware of the fact the Sri Lankan minister Douglas Devananda was declared as a “proclaimed offender” in Indian courts, Mr. Chidambaram merely said there was “no official information” to the government of India in this regard. – (BBC)