Indian Special Envoy should be neutral - TNA
July 22, 2010 10:00 pm
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) wants the Indian Special
Envoy to
Suresh Premachandran, TNA MP for
Absence of clarity
However, Premachandran felt that there was a lack of clarity
in
Enquiries here reveal that
Clash with official team
The TNA Premachandran wondered if the announcement of a
Special Envoy would clash with the work of the Indian official team going into
issues relating to Indian assistance to
A high level team of Indian officials had recently visited
the island in connection with the housing project ,but it is not known if there
will be another visit soon. At any rate, there is a lot of spade work to be
done at the Sri Lankan end. District Government Agents (Gas) would have to
enumerate the potential beneficiaries, assess the damage to houses, and suggest
the quantum of assistance.That process has apparently not begun yet.
Lack of commitment
However, at its meetings with Indian leaders in
“You can very well see the Lankan government’s low level of interest in IDP resettlement when you look at the budget allocations this year. While SLRs.202 billion (US$ 1.8 bn) is allocated for defence, only SLRs.2 billion (US$ 17 million) is given for IDP rehabilitation,” Premachandran said.
Impaired earning capacity
The Tamil MP pointed out that Lankan government was paying little or no attention to providing livelihood to the resettled people.
“Only a few with relatives abroad are starting to rebuild
their houses or starting to cultivate their lands. Most do not have the
wherewithal to start a livlihood. In some cases the army has taken over the
refugees’ agricultural land to build cantonments. There are refugee families
who had lost their earning male members in shelling during the war.Many
families are bereft of young males because they had been taken away and
detained as LTTE suspects,” Premachandran said.
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