Over six-hundred Sri Lankan refugees from the North and the East living in Tamil Nadu staged a demonstration demanding houses on Thursday, November 4..
The mass demonstration took place at a hamlet called Arani where they had blocked a highway which connects the main cities in Tamil Nadu with the hamlet, informed sources said.
Following the agitation, Police and Tamil Nadu State Government officials met the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who had been living under deplorable conditions from the time they arrived in Tamil Nadu following LTTE terrorism. According to reports from Tamil Nadu, nearly 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are living in various parts of India with the majority of them living in Tamil Nadu since the early 80s.
A survey by the Tamil Nadu State Government had also indicated that there were around 20,000 students of Sri Lankan Tamil origin attending schools, colleges and universities with the grant provided by the Tamil Nadu State Government.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin had said a week ago that he would embark on a project to build houses for the refugees who were living under deplorable conditions in makeshift houses without proper safety measures in place.