A Sri Lankan refugee in a special camp at Poonamallee in Tiruvallur district has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the State government to close the camp and shift the refugees to other camps in Tamil Nadu.
He also sought a direction to the authorities to complete investigation in all cases registered against the petitioner and other refugees in the camp within a reasonable time.
In his public interest litigation petition, Gangadaran alias Murthy, said he was earlier lodged in the Special Camp at Chengalpattu “which was totally unfit for a person to reside along with the members of his family.” The rooms were small and the inmates did not have sufficient space for moving around. When some of the inmates went on a hunger strike in February 2 this year seeking redressal of their grievances, there was a lathicharge and the inmates were seriously injured.
The injured persons were remanded to judicial custody. They were later granted bail. After their release on bail they were taken to the Poonamallee special camp. In all, there were now 19 refugees in the camp.
The petitioner alleged that the camp was worse than the one at Chengalpattu. The refugees were living like prisoners in the camp which could not be considered as a residence. The facilities in the camp were poor. Thus, a discriminatory treatment was being meted out to the inmates of the Poonamallee camp as compared with the other refugee camps in the State.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and K.K.Sasidharan on Wednesday admitted the petition and ordered notice.
