Latest news with #SriLankanTamils
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
May 31, 1985, Forty Years Ago: India-US talks
A new chapter of cooperation between India, the world's largest democracy, and the United States, the world's most powerful democracy, is expected to begin with the visit of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to the US in the second week of June. US arms supplies to Pakistan — a longstanding irritant in Indo-US relations — are expected to figure prominently during the talks Gandhi will have with President Ronald Reagan. Much ground has already been prepared with regard to improved bilateral economic relations. A memorandum of understanding on the transfer of technology from the US to India has been signed. Iraq said its warplanes attacked a 'very large naval target' — a term applied in the past to large merchant ships — near Iran's main oil export terminal at Kharg island in the Gulf. A spokesman said the planes scored an accurate hit and returned safely to base. The raids marked the fourth straight day in the latest flare up between the two belligerents, locked in a border war since September 1980. In the wake of protests by several Labour MPs, the UK government has said that it will not be harsh on Sri Lankan Tamils who are being driven to Britain by the trigger-happy Sinhalese troops, but it insists that representations on behalf of those who are not being allowed in will have to be limited to 24 hours. Earlier, the practice was that an MP could take up a case on behalf of a person denied entry into the country within a month or two. About 500 villagers were evacuated from the coastal villages of Junagadh district in view of the impending cyclonic storm which could strike the Gujarat coast. According to the latest weather bulletin, however, the cyclone had moved north and was heading towards Sind and Pakistan.
New Indian Express
5 days ago
- General
- New Indian Express
CM Stalin presented cash awards to Sri Lankan Tamil students for excelling in board exams
CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday felicitated nine Sri Lankan Tamil students residing in rehabilitation camps, who secured high marks in SSLC, Class 11 and 12 examinations, by awarding each of them Rs 50,000 along with a certificate of appreciation. In all, during the year 2024-25, as many as 937 Sri Lankan Tamil students took the SSLC examination, while 827 took the Class 11 examination and 722 took the Class 12 examination. Many of them have gone on to secure good ranks. An official release listed out welfare measures being implemented by the state government for the Sri Lankan Tamils living in the rehabilitation camps which included the CM's announcement of constructing 10,469 new houses for them. Of these, 3,000 houses have been completed and handed over. Construction works are on for the rest of the 7,469 houses, the release stated. Apart from all state welfare schemes being extended, as many as 14,316 Lankan Tamil women are receiving Rs 1,000 per month under the Kalaignar Magalir Urimathi Thogai Thittam, it added.
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
T.N.'s SimpleGov offers simplified procedure to get 10 services from eight departments
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Thursday launched 'SimpleGov' that has simplified the existing process of various services and schemes offered by the government. The new initiative by the Human Resources Management Department aims to provide 10 different services from eight government departments to applicants. In the first phase, SimpleGov would help applicants obtain sanitation certificate, public buildings licence, registration of old age homes, licence for working women hostels, registration of homes for women, solvency certificate, list of white category industries under the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. Applicants would be able to obtain no-objection certificate for using dry lands for non-agricultural purposes, conduct certificate and no-objection certificate for government employees to obtain passport too through SimpleGov, an official release said. 'The Chief Minister has reiterated that the government is for citizens. While the colonial legacy left behind the idea of trust body, this government is taking governance to citizens. This would be among the best programmes in governance and would give real empowerment to common citizens,' said G. Prakash, Secretary of Human Resources Management Department. When asked about portal/s through which the general public could avail of these services, the official said that the links would be shared soon. The Finance Minister in his Budget speech for 2025-26 announced that under the SimpleGov project, initiated to simplify government administrative processes and ensure quick and easy online access to government services, the procedures for obtaining certificates and documents from eight government department were being significantly streamlined. The government said it would include more services in the SimpleGov initiative to ensure transparency. In another event, the Chief Minister also inaugurated several projects completed by the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department at a cost of ₹102 crore. Mr. Stalin also inaugurated Malliakarai-Rasipuram-Tiruchengode-Erode highway that have been upgraded into a four-lane, a railway overbridge in Palanganatham in Madurai district and housing units for 41 Irular families who have been relocated for development works in Ranipet district at a total cost of ₹499 crore. Besides, Mr. Stalin unveiled foundation stone for projects that were to be implemented at a cost of ₹15 crore. He also inaugurated projects that have been implemented by the Commissionerate of Town Panchayats at a total cost of ₹77 crore. He unveiled foundation for new projects to be implemented at ₹18 crore. He also inaugurated new projects by Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board at ₹60 crore. In another event, the Chief Minister distributed cash incentive of ₹50,000 each to nine students living in Sri Lankan Tamils camps, who obtained high marks in Class X, XI and XII. He also launched the 'Uzhavarai Thedi' initiative by the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department that was to be implemented in about 17,000 villages. Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, Ministers K.N. Nehru, E.V. Velu, M.R.K. Panneerselvam, Thangam Thennarasu, Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, S.M. Nasar and N. Kayalvizhi Selvaraj; Chennai Mayor R. Priya; Chief Secretary N. Muruganandam and senior officials participated in these events. On Wednesday, farmers called on Chief Minister in the Secretariat and thanked him for clearing pending dues to the tune of ₹97 crore due to farmers. The payment benefitted over 5,900 farmers who had supplied sugarcanes for cooperative and public sector sugar mills.
IOL News
24-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
No accountability for murders at Mullivaikal
The Arutpa Kazhagam in Chatsworth honoured the memory of the dead and those brutalised in the Mullivaikal Massacre. At the event, Koven Jogianna unveiled the picture of late V Prabhakaran, who sacrificed his life during the conflict. Image: Supplied AN ESTIMATED 40 000 civilians lost their lives in the Mullivaikal Massacre on May 18, 2009, when the Sri Lankan military surrounded a village of 300 000 Tamil civilians, displaced persons and surviving members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It was the final days of the long-running civil war from 1983 to 2009 where Sri Lankan Tamils were campaigning for an independent Eelam homeland. This past Sunday the Arutpa Kazhagam on Lenny Naidu Drive in Chatsworth gathered to honour the memory of the dead and those brutalised in the conflict. The street is named in recognition of another martyr, who was kidnapped and murdered by apartheid security forces at the height of the struggle for South African freedom in 1998. At the time when war crime atrocities were committed against the Sri Lankan Tamil community, Arutpa Kazhagam was at the centre of South African relief efforts and solidarity activism. A delegation that included South African Tamil leaders like Dr Kisten Chinappan travelled abroad to meet with Velupillai Prabhakaran, founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Deputy foreign minister and one of the first armed combatants of uMkhonto we Sizwe, Ebrahim Ebrahim was also key to efforts to broker a dialogue between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. Their efforts were constantly stonewalled by the authorities in Columbo. Another constant voice of conscience was the humanitarian movement, Amnesty International, whose primary focus has historically been on the welfare of political prisoners. Speaking at an earlier Mullivaikal anniversary commemoration, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty, noted: '(This) anniversary is a grim reminder of the collective failure of the Sri Lankan authorities and the international community to deliver justice to the many victims of Sri Lanka's three-decade-long internal armed conflict... Ahead of this event, we have witnessed a clampdown on the memory initiatives, including arrests, arbitrary detentions and deliberately skewed interpretations of the Tamil community's attempts to remember their people lost to the war. Authorities must respect the space for victims to grieve, memorialise their loved ones and respect their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.' In a stark written and visual record, various institutions, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Navaneetham Pillay, recorded that the Sri Lankan government forces and their armed political affiliates committed extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and acts of torture against Tamils suspected of links to the LTTE. The LTTE's own conduct in the armed struggle also came in for criticism. Like the staunch defenders of human rights and self-determination at the Arutpa in Chatsworth, none should be blind to the atrocities of armed conflict around the globe. Whether Palestine, Sudan, Congo and the Great Lakes Region, Myanmar, Yemen, Ukraine or the jungles of South America, it is unarmed civilians who bear the most vicious brunt of war – death, destruction of homes and livelihoods, rape, forced migration and other atrocities. The boat loads of people streaming into Europe and the United Kingdom are invariably victims of war and instability in their home countries. Similarly, the conflicts or instability in the Congo, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Horn of Africa are in large part the push factor for refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants crossing into South Africa. One can easily identify these communities setting up home in informal settlements in just about every major city and town or clamouring for piecemeal jobs at traffic lights or working as car guards. No one leaves their homes for strange lands without being forced to. Activism in support of peace and justice in Sri Lanka was no different from the present-day cries of, for example, Palestine, where ignoring international law banning indiscriminate shelling of protected zones results in the deaths of far more innocent civilians than armed combatants. In stark parallels with Palestine, the Sri Lankan government had initially declared the Mullivaikal area a 'no-fire zone' and told civilians to go there to be safe from the war. After corralling innocent civilians, the Sri Lankan army's indiscriminate shelling launched a mass artillery barrage on the men, women, and children trapped there. Other than the 4 0000 deaths, a large number of the 300 000 civilians were locked up in infamous detention camps where more than 12 000 men and women were arrested by Sri Lanka's anti-terrorism unit and detained in separate, secret camps. The civil war ended on May 18, 2009, when Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in action in the final months of the civil war. Every year since that tragic day on May 18, 2009, the Mullivaikal Massacre is commemorated around the world by the Tamil diaspora to memorialise the inhumanity of the Sri Lankan military and government. The Arutpa Kazhagam keeps alive this memory to remind us of United States civil rights leaders, Dr Martin Luther King's epic call to activism: 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' Kiru Naidoo Image: Supplied Selvan Naidoo Image: Supplied
The Hindu
21-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Construction of group houses for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees begins in Tiruchi
Construction of group houses for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees at Kottapattu on Tiruchi-Pudukottai Highway has begun. There are about 107 rehabilitation camps for Sri Lankan Tamils in the State. Most of them came into existence about 37 years ago. The rehabilitation camps at Kottapattu in Tiruchi district and Mandapam in Ramanathapuram district are among the biggest refugee camps in the State. The camp at Kottapattu has 470 houses and about 1,200 Sri Lankan refugees have been sheltered there. Several houses in the Kottapattu camp are in dilapidated condition due to age, poor maintenance and other factors. The State government sanctioned ₹33.30 crore to build new houses for the Tamils, who reside in the existing refugee camp at Kottapattu. The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) has been entrusted with the task of building the houses. As per the plan of the Commissionerate of Rehabilitation and the Welfare of Non-Resident Tamils, 526 houses with ceramic flooring will be built near Kottapattu. They will be constructed in groups. There will be 131 blocks and two individual houses. Each block will have four houses. S. Gangadharini, Project Director, DRDA, told The Hindu that it would cost ₹25.30 lakh for each block. A sum of ₹33.14 crore would be spent for building 131 blocks. It would cost ₹15.50 lakh for building two individual houses. It would come up on 10.167 acres of land near Kottapattu. Each house would have a plinth area of 291.30 square feet. She said the construction had begun. Foundation work of all blocks had been completed. It was proposed to complete the work by August. Once completed, all Sri Lankan Tamils, who were residing at the existing camp, would be relocated and allotted new houses. All other basic facilities, including drinking water and street lights, would also be established.
