Vikramaditya
Katchal, November 23: Protest by nearly 242 Sri Lankan Tamil Settler families of Katchal Island will enter ninth day tomorrow and the relay hunger strike by them will enter fourth day.
Today three ladies from Sri Lankan Tamil Settler families sat on relay hunger strike to press their long pending demands of resettlement from Katchal Island to South Andaman region.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha today over phone Mr. Lawrence George Thomas, the Joint Secretary of Katchal Settlers’ Welfare Association said that nearly 300 members of Sri Lankan Tamil Settler families have today written individual letters to the Lt. Governor demanding his personal intervention in this matter. He added that more people of the community will also write similar individual letters to the Lt. Governor in coming days.
“We do not have any clue about the present status of our resettlement from Tribal area to non-Tribal area. Until and unless we get a deadline from the administration that how long it will take to resettle us from Katchal Island to South Andaman, we will continue the protest,” Mr. Lawrence said.
A total of 48 families of Indian origin were settled in the tribal areas of the island under a pact signed between then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Srimao Bandaranayke in 1964. At the time of settlement between 1974 and 1976, they were given half an acre of land, a single bedroom house and employment for two members of a family in the rubber plantation on daily wages.
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