The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Only one Sri Lankan Tamil asked to leave: Karunanidhi

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Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Only one Sri Lankan Tamil asked to leave: Karunanidhi

Special Correspondent

Refutes allegation that not enough was done for refugees living in camps

CHENNAI: Only one Sri Lankan Tamil was asked to leave the State because he was “acting in a manner that was detrimental to internal security of the country” and no Tamil refugee would be asked to leave Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi said here on Monday.

Responding to the Communist Party of India State secretary D.Pandian’s criticism, he said that he saw in the CPI organ, Janasakthi, that one person was asked to leave India. “After I read the news in Janasakthi at 5 a.m., I spoke to the Nilgiris SP over phone and enquired about the incident,” he said and added that the SP informed him that the ‘Q’ Branch of the police had advised the SP to serve a leave India notice on the person. This was because, the person, Vasanth, was an LTTE (Karuna faction) operative and he was indulging in extortion and his conduct was detrimental to internal security. “There are 281 Sri Lankan refugees and about one lakh plantation labourers who returned home. No one has been served any such notice,” he said.

Mr.Karunanidhi refuted the allegation that not enough was done for the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in camps here.

Allowance

He said that it was after the DMK government came to power in 2006 that the amount given per month to each family was raised from Rs.200 to Rs.400. The allowance for adults was enhanced from Rs.144 to Rs.288 per month. For this scheme, the Centre gives Rs.144 per person and the State bears the remaining Rs.144. Similarly, the Centre gave maintenance allowance of Rs.90 for the first child. The State government enhanced this to Rs.180. For subsequent children the Centre gave Rs.45 per child, and the State government had enhanced this to Rs.90.

Moreover, the Muthulakshmi Reddy pregnant women scheme was available to refugee women too. The government has enhanced the money given to buy kitchen utensils once in two years, from Rs.150 to Rs.250. It has also enhanced the amount for performing last rites from Rs.100 to Rs.500. Refugees were now provided round-the-clock power supply as opposed to 12 hours till recently. The total expenditure on refugee camps had jumped from Rs.28 crore in 2004-05 to Rs.48.58 crore in 2008-09.

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