Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to satate :-

(a) whether the Joint Parliamentary team that visited Sri Lanka recently has taken up with Sri Lankan Government the matter regarding the move initiated by the Sri Lankan Government to close the Farm Rehabilitation Centre where people have been living for many decades;

(b) whether the Joint Parliamentary team also took up the issue with the Sri Lankan Government of the occupation by Sinhalese of the houses built up by Government of India for Sri Lankan Tamils; and

(c) if so, the response received by the team in this regard?

ANSWER: THE MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (SHRI S.M. KRISHNA)

(a) to (c) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (C) OF RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.487 REGARDING
“VISIT OF JOINT PARLIAMENTARY TEAM TO SRI LANKA”
FOR ANSWER ON 10.05.2012

(a) A 12-member Joint Parliamentary delegation, led by the Hon’ble Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, visited Sri Lanka from 16-21 April 2012. During their stay in Sri Lanka, the delegation visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp at Menik Farms and interacted with the IDPs. The delegation was briefed on various facilities provided to the remaining 6,000 IDPs (out of 3,00,000 IDPs that were brought to the camps following the end of the conflict in May 2009). The delegation, during its discussions with the President of Sri Lanka and other senior Ministers of the Government, emphasised the need for early resettlement and rehabilitation of the remaining IDPs.

(b) & (c) During the State visit of President of Sri Lanka to India in June 2010, an initiative to undertake a programme of construction of 50,000 houses for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka under Government of India grant assistance was announced.

As part of this, a Pilot Project for construction of 1000 new houses was taken up by the Government of India in Northern Sri Lanka essentially to cover the most vulnerable categories which include widows, landless, old persons and single-headed households. A vast majority of the beneficiaries of the Project are Tamil speaking.

External Affairs Minister during his visit to Sri Lanka in January 2012 handed over the first lot of completed houses to the beneficiaries of this Pilot Project.
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