VELLORE: Chief minister M K Stalin on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for the first phase of a mega project to construct 3,510 houses at a cost of Rs 142.16 crore for Sri Lankan Tamil people residing at Melmonavur rehabilitation camp in Vellore district.
The government has proposed to construct houses and extend all basic amenities for Sri Lankan Tamil people in all the 106 rehabilitation camps across the state.
Speaking after launching the project, Stalin said Sri Lankan Tamil people are not refugees or destitute but are like Tamils living in any part of the world and connected by race, language, culture and civilization. He recalled that he had made an announcement in the assembly that Sri Lankan refugees’ camps would be christened as Sri Lankan rehabilitation camps.
He said Sri Lankan Tamil people started arriving in Tamil Nadu after fleeing from the war-ravaged island nation in 1983. He said the previous DMK government implemented several welfare schemes for them in 1997. The schemes benefitted them to some extent but not fully, he said. But the previous AIADMK government did not care for Sri Lankan Tamil people during its previous two tenures. The DMK government, as soon as it assumed office, resumed all welfare schemes for them. He said the DMK government had allotted Rs 100 crore to provide basic amenities in the camps across the state in 2009.
Stalin also launched a series of other projects like providing basic amenities including pucca roads, clean drinking water and power supply among others. He announced that the government would bear the tuition and hostel fees of the wards of Sri Lankan Tamil people pursuing engineering, agriculture and agricultural engineering and postgraduate courses.
He added that the government would extend enhanced financial assistance for the wards of Sri Lankan Tamil people pursuing art and science courses besides organizing capacity building programmes for them to boost their employment opportunities. He said the cash incentive for the self-help groups functioning in the camps, which was not enhanced for the last 10 years, would be hiked.
The government has allocated Rs 12.4 crore for extending enhanced cash incentive to the SHGs, Rs 3 crore for providing quality cloth to the Sri Lankan Tamil people, Rs 2.4 crore to provide five types of stainless steel utensils instead of aluminium utensils provided earlier and Rs 8.7 crore to provide LPG connections.