Pro-LTTE Tamil groups in Tamil Nadu staged protests against the presence of two senior Sri Lankan defence officers in the state; India launches the next phase of the Indian Housing Project for constructing 43,000 housing units; India's Minister of Rural D
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Whatsapp
  • Linkedin
  • Print

    • According to reports, pro-LTTE Tamil groups in the state of Tamil Nadu in India have staged protests against the presence of two senior Sri Lankan defence officers who are in the state to participate in an Annual Interaction Session Monday at the Defence Services Staff College located at Wellington in Tamil Nadu. The police have arrested about 30 MDMK workers, led by their Coimbatore District secretary, Eswaran, when they staged a demonstration and squatted in front of the hotel where the Sri Lankan officers are staying, Indian media reported. 1

    In another development, India launched the next phase of the Indian Housing Project for constructing 43,000 housing units for the resettled families in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka Friday, High Commission of India said in a statement. The High Commission of India signed agreements Friday to award work to four Implementing Agencies (IAs), viz., UN-HABITAT, International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in partnership with Sri Lanka Red Cross, National Housing Development Agency (NHDA) of the Government of Sri Lanka and Habitat for Humanity, Sri Lanka. 2

    Reports noted that India, being a large country in the South Asia region had decided to adopt unilateral concessions to make relationships stronger with the neighbors and not insist on reciprocity, India's Minister of Rural Development and Drinking Water & Sanitation Jairam Ramesh has said. Minsiter Jairam Ramesh who visited Sri Lanka from 11-13 July 2012 on an invitation extended by Sri Lanka Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris, has highlighted India's desire for the whole region to grow with India and the need for a larger role for cross-investments in the region. During his visit, the Indian Minister called on the Sri Lankan President and had meetings with Prof. Peiris, and Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development. During the discussions the Ministers acknowledged the shared experiences between Sri Lanka and India especially in the fields of poverty alleviation and rural development. Minister Ramesh also delivered the keynote address at a Joint Seminar on Poverty Alleviation organized by the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS), Colombo, and the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi. 3

    In other developments, according to the data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed, Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 21.6 percent in June this year compared to the same period last year. The month recorded 65,245 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 53,636 arrived in June 2011. 4

    Top