By IANS,
Chennai : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to send an official of the external affairs ministry to Sri Lanka to consult the Indian high commissioner there and assess the progress of rehabilitation of Tamils living in refugee camps, according to his letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
In reply to the chief minister’s July 17 letter, the prime minister wrote back July 22: “As measure of our continuing interest and the importance we attach to this issue, I am sending a senior official from the Ministry of External Affairs to visit Sri Lanka to consult with our High Commissioner and the local authorities, visiting the northern and eastern provinces to measure the progress in these areas.”
Karunanidhi in his letter had suggested sending an Indian envoy to Sri Lanka to assess the progress on the rehabilitation of Tamils living in refugee camps in the island nation.
On July 9, Singh in his letter to Karunanidhi had invited his views and advice “on ways forward towards the process of genuine reconciliation to resolve the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka once and for all through political agreement that we have consistently advocated”.