K’nidhi writes to PM on Lanka

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Sunday requested Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the issue of Tamils still living in transit camps in Sri Lanka during his meeting with the president of the island nation.

In a letter to Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi said nearly 80,000 Tamils are still living in transit camps and they are awaiting rehabilitation measures by the Sri Lankan government.

"Those families who have been rehabilitated and settled elsewhere also be provided with economic development and justice-based reconciliation to work towards a permanent political settlement," he said.

He urged the prime minister to take up these issues during his meeting with Sri Lankan President at New Delhi on Tuesday "as a special agenda and impress upon him the need for earliest rehabilitation measures to Sri Lankan Tamils."

Karunanidhi said Colombo had promised to rehabilitate all Sri Lankan Tamils living in transit camps before December 2009.