Lankan min seeks India's intervention to help ethnic Indians

CHENNAI: Sri Lankan minister, representing the Tamil plantation workers in the island nation, on Sunday urged India to intervene in improving the social, economic and educational conditions of the ethnic Indian community.

P Chandrasekaran, Minister of Community Development, told PTI in an exclusive interview here that Sri Lanka has done 'little' for the 15 lakh-strong ethnic Indian community since it got independence on February 4, 1948.
 
"While the British rulers, who took people from India 200 years back to employ them in plantation fields, saw them just as labourers and did not give them any major facility, the situation is no different after independence," he said.
 
"India should ensure the role of its non-resident Indians (NRIs) in helping us develop in the areas of education, health and sanitation," said Chandrasekaran, also President of Up Country People's Front--a part of the ruling alliance in Sri Lanka.

The Minister, who recently addressed a gathering of NRIs at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi, said that India should also ensure the participation of the members of ethnic Indian communities in the meeting.

"Such meetings can act as a platform for them to air their grievances and attract solutions immediately," he said.

Chandrasekaran also called for India's intervention to put an end to the ethnic strife in the island nation.
 
"However, we fear that India may not be willing to intervene in the issue immediately and therefore political leaders in Tamil Nadu must press the Centre in this regard," he said.