Stalin Will Strive For Citizenship To Lankan Refugees
Chennai: Prime Minister MK Stalin, who promised to make efforts to grant citizenship to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who have been living in Tamil Nadu for a long time, said that he would continue to raise his voice on this issue and expressed the hope that the Indian government would speed up the process.
In a message on page
He said the DMK government is also funding Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) among Sri Lankan Tamils and also conducts skill development training for members to improve their livelihood.
Stalin, who inaugurated a housing colony for Sri Lankan Tamils in Kanyakumari district on Tuesday, spoke to the residents and explained his government’s efforts to grant them citizenship.
There are around one lakh refugees living mostly in Tamil Nadu. Most of them (about 57,000 people) live in camps, while the rest live outside by registering with state authorities.
The influx of Sri Lankan Tamils into Tamil Nadu began in 1983, when they fled their homeland for safety reasons following the outbreak of ethnic conflict in the island nation. Many families have now lived in Tamil lands for three generations. Although the Union Government has made attempts to repatriate them to their homeland, most of them prefer to live in Tamil Nadu.
