The Government is to appoint a committee to see how best to further integrate upcountry Tamils into Sri Lankan society.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that while some upcountry Tamils had successfully integrated into the Sri Lankan society, some had failed.
As a result, he said that measures will be taken to assist them.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe made these observations after accepting a consignment of medicine donated by the Pondicherry Union Territory and people of India on a request made by the Ceylon Worker’s Congress (CWC).
The medicine was officially handed over to the President by the Secretary General of the Ceylon Worker’s Congress and Parliamentarian Jeevan Thondaman in memory of the late Saumyamoorthi Thondaman who passed away 23 years ago on 30th October.
The consignment of medicines was subsequently handed over to Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.
The President said that he would ensure the development of schools in the plantation sector while the Ministry of Health would take over the hospitals in the area. He assured development in both these areas very soon.
Wickremesinghe also said that the Government is encouraging building of houses and issuing lands to the people of Tamil origin in the hill country because they must have their own land and a place to live just like other groups in the hill country.
He further said that steps would be taken to review the plantation economy that could be affected by people leaving the plantation areas after being educated.
“As people are being educated, more and more are leaving the plantation sector. The Government has to find jobs for them as well as for other Sinhalese and Muslims who leave their areas to settle elsewhere. So, the Government has to look at the future of the groups that would continue to live in the plantation sector and on how to improve the plantation economy as they cannot be allowed to live in a subsistence level,” the President said.
He said that these issues would be gradually resolved in the coming years as the Government looks to address the whole ethnic issue in Sri Lanka.
He assured that the government would take further measures to ensure that upcountry Tamils would have the same facilities as other people in the country as realized and worked on during the tenure of late President J R Jayawardena.
The President also appreciated the service rendered by late Thondaman and said he was one of the most outstanding leaders of the 20th century in Sri Lanka as through nonviolence he achieved citizenship for all the people of Indian Origin who stayed back after the Srima-Shasthri Pact. The President said that he got citizenship for some people who should have gone under Srima-Shastri Pact but decided to stay back in Sri Lanka.
Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, a representative from the Indian High Commission, several members of CWC including Senthil Thondaman were present at the occasion. (Colombo Gazette)
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