REFUGEE

Colombo

The delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu today visited the picturesque Nuwara Eliya and Hatton Town in Sri Lanka's Central Province and interacted with Tamil origin plantation workers there. Nuwara Eliya is an important location for tea cultivation in Sri Lanka, one of the largest exporters of the commodity in the world.

The team met some of the Tamil workers of Indian origin in the plantations. According to sources, the Indian MPs will spend the night in the area to interact and hear about the workers'living conditions in the plantation sector.

Many tea plantation workers from India are Tamils brought over to Sri Lanka by the British in the 19th century as labourers for the expanding tea estates.

Earlier, the Indian MPs from Tamil Nadu on a mission here to ascertain the living conditions of displaced Tamils after the end of the war, travelled to Hatton, a small town, and visited the Thondaman vocational centre.

The centre provides training to plantation youths for gainful employment opportunities. The ten MPs, who visited the relief camps for dispalced Tamils in Vavuniya yesterday, are the first political delegation from India to tour Sri Lanka after the 30-year-old civil war ended in May.