COLOMBO: The Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran on Friday expressed a wish send relief to the flood-affected people of Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu as an expression of gratitude for the way the people of Tamil Nadu had risen in support of the beleaguered Tamils of Lanka in the 1980s bringing the latter’s plight to the attention of the international community.
The CM said in a press release that the Board of Ministers of the Northern Province would meet to discuss what could be sent to Chennai from North Sri Lanka.
The people of Tamil Nadu had shaken the world by their sustained agitation over the Lankan Tamil issue and against that background, it is painful to see the people there undergoing such great suffering, Wigneswaran said.
K.Neelakandan, President of the All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC), urged the Sri Lankan government to immediately send relief to the suffering people of Tamil Nadu and assured the cooperation of the ACHC in this regard.
In contrast to the scrappy reporting in the English language Lankan media, the Tamil press here has been carrying detailed news with pictures about the deluge in Chennai.