India assures interests of all communities - Envoy
COLOMBO: Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad said the Indian
diplomats here assure the interests of all Tamils and other communities
in Sri Lanka.
He was speaking at the handing over of books to the value of Rs. 1
million on Tamil classics, modern literature, culture, Indian philosophy
and music to the Jaffna Library at the Indian Cultural Centre recently.
The High Commissioner said India has similarly gifted educational
material to the Universities in Colombo, Peradeniya, the Southern,
Eastern Provinces in her policy to assist learning of the sciences in
higher learning institutions in Sri Lanka.
It is the intention of the Indian Government to continue to do so.
The High Commissioner went back to the pre-1947 period and recalled the
late Swami Vipulanandan, a great Tamil Sanskrit and Bhagvadgita scholar
- a Lankan teaching at the Annamalai University in Chennai.
He said some of the rare manuscripts in the then Jaffna University
had gained scholarly fame and were so much in demand in India that
scholar-students used to visit Jaffna arranged by Swami Vipulanandan to
take manual copies of these rare literature at a time when photocopying
facilities were not known.
It was a privilege, to continue the association with a historical
institute of learning of distinction and to be of assistance to it, he
said.
India has provided ambulances, buses, costly medical and surgical
equipment to the people of the Tamil-speaking provinces of the
North-East. Musical instruments were handed over by the High Commission
to the Nallur Music Society.
The Base Hospitals in Jaffna and Trincomalee have been beneficiaries
of substantial equipment and other assistance from India in recent
times.
India’s diplomats here assure very much close to her heart the
interests of all Tamils in Sri Lanka - as indeed it does consider the
welfare of all other communities in Sri Lanka who also receive
substantial assistance regularly from India as part of growing
Indo-Lankan co-operation and friendship.
Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Jaffna University Dr. K. Sivapalan
accepting a further consignment of books on Medicine for the Jaffna
University Medical Faculty valued over Rs. 1.5 million thanked the
Indian Government for this generous gift. Dr. Sivapalan expressed the
need for a well-equipped para-medic section in the Faculty and hoped the
Indian Government would consider assistance in this regard.
He mentioned several doctors in the University and hospitals in the
Peninsula have recently graduated from Indian Universities.
Jaffna Municipal Commissioner S. M. Saravanabavan also spoke. |