Indian PM pledges to continue taking up genuine issues of Tamils in Lanka

Saturday, 4 January 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

India has consistently made efforts to persuade the Sri Lankan Government to address “genuine” problems of Tamil population in Sri Lanka, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday and asked Tamilians from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu to work together to resolve the fishermen issue.

“It is not true that we are not concerned about the well being of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka. We have consistently made every effort to persuade the Government of Sri Lanka to address the genuine problems of the Tamil population. We continue to do so and will do in future as well,” Singh said while replying to a query at a press conference. Observing that the Government has raised the fishermen issue “on an innumerable number of occasions” with the Sri Lankan Government, the Prime Minister said: “We feel that there is an opportunity for the Tamil population of Sri Lanka and Tamil population in Tamil Nadu to sit together to work out an arrangement between the fishermen of two countries which will be mutually satisfactory. I think these things are going to happen. This is the only way in which this problem of fishermen in both countries could be resolved.” He also noted that in northern Sri Lanka there was a Government of Tamil population. (New Indian Express)