Committee to further integrate Tamils of hill country origin into society – President

 

The government will appoint a committee to seek how best to integrate the Tamils of Hill Country Origin further into the Sri Lankan society, said President Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

He said further that although some of the Tamils of Hill Country Origin had integrated successfully into the Sri Lankan society, some have failed and measures would be taken to assist them to do so. President Ranil Wickremesinghe made these observations addressing at the occasion of accepting a consignment of medicines donated by the Pondicherry Union Territory and people of India on the request of Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) at the Presidential Secretariat this morning (30). 

The consignment of medicines was officially handed over to the President by Secretary General of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) and Parliamentarian Jeewan Thondaman, in memory of the late Mr. Saumyamoorthi Thondaman who passed away 23 years ago on October 30th. He said further, steps would be taken to review the plantation economy that could be affected by people leaving the plantation areas after being educated. 

He assured that the government would take further measures to ensure that Tamil people of Hill Country Origin would have the same facilities as other people in the country as realized and worked on under late President J R Jayawardena’s tenure. 

The President also appreciated the service rendered by late Thondaman and said he was one of the most outstanding leaders of the 20th century in Sri Lanka as through nonviolence he achieved citizenship for all the people of Indian Origin who stayed back after the Srima-Shasthri Pact.