New Delhi: Rehabilitation of displaced
Tamils in Sri Lanka on Friday came up for discussion during a
meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President
Mahinda Rajapaksa amid India's insistence that it was time for
its neighbour to act decisively to "win over" the ethnic
minority.
Singh hosted lunch for Rajapaksa, who was here to
attend the closing ceremony of Commonwealth Games, during
which informal discussions on various bilateral issues were
held.
During the meeting, the Sri Lankan President is
believed to have apprised Singh about the steps taken by his
government to rehabilitate Tamils, who were displaced by the
war between Sri Lankan troops and LTTE which ended a year ago.
Yesterday, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G L Peiris held
a meeting with his Indian counterpart S M Krishna during which
the two sides discussed the issue.
Peiris told Krishna that the number of displaced
people who are yet to be rehabilitated has come down to 20,000
from 2.80 lakh.
They also discussed about Sri Lankan government's plan
for political devolution.
Krishna, while interacting with a group of journalists
here today, said that he had told Peiris that since
Presidential elections and all other polls had concluded, it
was "now time to act decisively to win over Tamil speaking Sri
Lankans so that their concerns were taken care of adequately".
It is important to bring about homogeneity between
ethnic Tamils and Sinhalese people, he said, adding the Sri
Lankan side agreed and assured that they were working on it.
Krishna and Peiris also took stock of the progress on
implementation of bilateral pacts signed earlier this year.
PTI
First Published: Friday, October 15, 2010, 18:40