Let plantation Tamils be called Sri Lankans - PM

The Indian Tamil tag on estate Tamil workers should be done away with. They should be given the opportunity to live as Sri Lankans, Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne said.

He said these workers who came to Sri Lanka to serve in estates during British rule, have been living in Sri Lanka for a number of decades.

"They have spent many generations in our country and it is not fair to use the term Indian Tamil for them", he told at a special service conducted at Sri Muttumari Amman Pattini Kovil, Little Valley, Deltota.

The Prime Minister said the government hopes to create an environment for estate workers to live on equal grounds.

"We hope to name them as Sri Lankans instead of Indian Tamils. Similarly, we are planning to call them estate employees instead of estate workers. We are also planning to replace the term Line with estate house," the Prime Minister said.

He said the estate workers who have been living in our country for decades should be considered as Sri Lankan citizens.

Sinhala and Tamil communities have had a close rapport from the past. There is not much of a difference between the culture of the Sinhalese people and the culture of the Tamil people, the Premier said.

The Prime Minister said during his term of office as the Plantation Industries Minister, he launched a new program for estate workers to have a good standard of life.

"I assisted them by building houses and helped them to generate an extra income through self-employment programs. In most cases, these programs were successful. I expect to continue to work to create a better social status for estate workers in the upcountry areas. We have raised our voice on a number of occasions in their favour regarding the construction of houses, roads and schools etc," he said.

"We strive to teach Tamil to Sinhala children and Sinhala to Tamil children to create a close bond between the two communities. We hope to recruit educated youth of estate areas as Sinhala medium teachers.

Around 1.5 million Tamils live in the North and the East while only around 1.5 million Tamils live in the South. In this scenario, it is not fair to ask for a separate state for the Tamils in the North and the East only. The majority of Tamils live with Sinhala and Muslims harmoniously. Around 78,000,000 Tamils live in India but they do not ask for a separate state," he said.

The Prime Minister said President Mahinda Rajapaksa has created the environment for all to live in peace and harmony.

"We will not be able to rise as a country as long as we are divided. We should seak all differences and create an environment to live peacefully," he said.

"I was able to financially assist kovils in the Northern area with provision from the Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs Ministry. "I have helped around 90 percent of kovils in the estate and kovils in the Gampola electorate." the Prime Minister said.

He said he had formulated a program to help all religious places including temples in the island.

Little Valley Muttu Amman Pattini Kovil chairmen Ravi Kanna and K. Ramasami, kovil's chief priest J. Jeganathan and Hindu devotees participated.