Tamil Nadu Govt. sends relief material for displaced people in Sri Lanka

Chennai, Aug 6(ANI): Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday sent the fourth installment of relief material worth Rs 15 crores for Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, who are confined to displacement camps.

More than 2,80,000 civilians are held in sprawling camps in the north since May, when government troops crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year-old war.

The relief material was sent in a ship from the Chennai Port and is expected to reach Colombo by August 8.

The relief material includes food items, personal hygiene products and other clothing material that would be distributed in the relief camps.

"Today, nearly Rs 15 crores of material, relief material have gone for various refugee camps in Sri Lanka," said Shakti Ravi, a local journalist.

Sri Lanka has pledged to resettle the bulk of the displaced within six months -- a tall order given the thousands of landmines that have to be cleared across former Tiger territory.

On the back of that pledge, the International Monetary Fund has approved a 2.6 billion dollar loan to Sri Lanka's 40 billion dollar economy to help the country cope with the global financial crisis and pay for reconstruction. (ANI)