Indian delegation commends Govt’s rehabilitation program

by Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Irrigation and Water Management Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said that the Indian Parliamentary delegation which held discussions with him at the Parliamentary complex on Tuesday commended the rehabilitation and resettlement process carried out by the Government and also endorsed the economic empowerment and development going on apace in the North and the East.

The delegation said they were fully satisfied with the rehabilitation and resettlement process initiated by the Government. Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa also briefed them on the progress of the rehabilitation and resettlement program.

The delegation which toured the North on Wednesday had themselves witnessed the development program launched by the government, the Minister told the Sunday Observer.

The Minister said that they had one-on-one discussions with the Indian Parliamentary delegation. The delegation members were keen on clarifying certain issues and the ground realities.

“We also told them very frankly about our problems. The government maintains that no country can dictate to us as to what we should do. It is entirely up to Sri Lanka to decide on what should be done. We explained certain matters to them and they also explained some of the issues they were concerned with. The discussions were conducted in a very cordial manner and there was no compulsion,” he said.

Minister de Silva said that the UPFA Government is a coalition. Whatever devolution to be embarked upon and its final outcome has to be arrived at through consensus. It cannot be done unilaterally. The SLFP alone cannot offer a solution. It has to be discussed with the Opposition and other UPFA coalition partners.

The TNA is not the sole representative of the Tamils. There are also Tamil politicians such as Douglas Devananda and Arumugam Thondaman. Nearly 54 percent of the Tamils live outside Colombo and also outside the North and the East.

“We should not concentrate only on Tamils in the North and the East, but those who live in the South as well. They are not asking for devolution or political solution. They are quite happy to live with our Sinhala and Muslim brethren without any problem.

“Hence I told the Indian delegation that this is the ground reality in the country and asked them not to be misled by propaganda. We are a proud nation and we have no ethnic problem as such. We are not discriminating against any ethnic group.” he said.

Even within the Tamil community itself, there are lots of differences between Batticaloa Tamils and Jaffna Tamils which we don’t have towards the Tamils. “We will have to be aware of the ground realities of the situation, the Minister said.