Tami Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday announced a package of Rs317.40 crore for the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, a move that will stymie the revival of the LTTE.

The package include funds for reconstruction of the camps, education to children and scholarships for the postgraduates among refugees.

Advertisement

The government will also support self-help groups in the refugee camps and Rs 6.16 crore has been sanctioned along with Rs 10 crore for skill development training to 5,000 youngsters.

Free of cost cooking gas connection and stove would be provided to camp inmates at a cost of Rs 7 crore and a subsidy of Rs 400 would be provided for five gas cylinders and an amount of Rs 3.80 crore per year is earmarked for this purpose.

In April 2021, the Indian Coast Guard apprehended a Sri Lankan boat from Pakistan and headed towards the Island nation with drugs worth Rs 3,000 crore and 5 AK-47 assault rifles.

Sri Lankan nationals were arrested from the boat who revealed that some persons living in Kerala and Tamil Nadu were behind the deal. Police soon arrested a Sri Lankan national, Suresh Raj, masquerading as a cloth businessman, staying in Aluva in Kerala without proper documents.

The NIA and other central agencies on upon questioning came to know that the drug sale was intended to fund the LTTE movement.

The ban on LTTE was extended for another five years in 2019 as the outfit tried to regroup using sleeper cells and funneling funds accrued from nefarious deals.

The DMK has always been under scanner over its covert and overt support to the LTTE and its alliance partners in the front, VCK and MDMK has always been vocal for the LTTE and Tamil nationalism.

While MDMK leader Vaiko was arrested and jailed after slapping the dreaded POTA charge against him in 2002, the VCK leader and MP Thol Thiruvamavalavn has also been a vocal supporter of the LTTE.

Actor-politician Seeman, who is the founder of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) has also been a pro active supporter of Tamil nationalism and LTTE.

With all these factors looming large and arrest of Sri Lankan nationals spilling the beans, the Tamil Nadu government wanted to keep a safe distance from these movements.

Stalin’s package is likely to prevent any unrest in these refugee camps in favour of the Tamil nationalist movement.

C. Rajeev, Director, Centre For Policy and Development Studies, a Think Tank based out of Chennai, said, “The Tamil people of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu are the same. The possible regrouping of LTTE and the financial support it could garner following drug trade can lead to a sympathy quotient developing for the outfit in the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.

“Chief Minister M.K. Stalin wants to stay clear of the LTTE and prevent the outfit from sowing the seeds of Tamil nationalism again in the minds of these refugees,” he said.