TN to approach MEA over aid to Lankan Tamils
Daniel P George
Chennai : The Tamil Nadu government on Monday decided to take up with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna the issue of the large consignment of food and medicines for displaced persons in Sri Lankan refugee camps that has been lying uncleared in the Colombo Port for more than a month. The 660-tonne consignment had been sent from Chennai on board the vessel Cape Colorado.
The accumulated demurrage payable to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority is now Rs 1.5 million Sri Lankan Rupees (Rs 7.5 lakh), according to Suren J S Pieris, Deputy Director-General, Operations, Sri Lanka Red Cross.
The delay, it is learnt, is because of the volume of paperwork involved in getting the approval of the agencies concerned — the Ministry of Health, the Sri Lanka Standards Institute and the Atomic Energy Authority of Sri Lanka.
Agni Subramaniam, the Indian coordinator and human rights activist, said “these are tactics to deprive the poor Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of essential goods under the pretext of checking the ship for arms and radioactive items.’’
The consignment — 884 tonnes of relief material collected from all over Europe for Sri Lankan Tamils — came on board MV Ali, which set sail from the UK in April. On June 9 it tried to enter Colombo Port but was escorted out of Sri Lankan waters by the Lankan navy and anchored in international waters near the Chennai port.
After much drama, it was allowed to enter Chennai port and its cargo was loaded on to Cape Colorado. After customs clearance, the relief material was handed over to the Indian Red Cross Society which sent it to its Sri Lankan counterpart for distribution to more than 3,00,000 Tamils in refugee camps. The consignment, however, remains at the Colombo port thanks to the two organizations haggling over who is to pay the demurrage charges.
Courtesy : TIMES OF INDIA / TIMES NATION SECTION
TNC
Last update : 25-08-2009 04:03
http://adhikaalai.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment