The All India United Front Federation for Repatriates has made an appeal to Home Minister P. Chidambaram to revive benefits and concessions provided for Sri Lankan and Burma repatriates of Indian origin.
In a memorandum submitted to the Union Minister, the president of the federation, R. M. Ramachandran, said that it was essential till such time the repatriates were able to support themselves. The federation claimed that the six lakh people of Indian origin, who were repatriated to India from Sri Lanka, had swelled to 20 lakhs now.
Though they were employed in plantations and spinning mills in the beginning, the repatriates were now forced to live on charity. It wanted the government to activate the department that was looking after the welfare of repatriates. The department's focus, it said, had now turned to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees as a result of which even officials were not able to differentiate between repatriates and refugees. The federation also called for steps to provided houses to the needy among the repatriates.
