Karunanidhi 'satisfied' with Centre's measures

Tamil Nadu: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Tuesday said he was `satisfied' with the measures taken by the UPA G overnment on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, PTI reported.

In a statement, he said, "we have a Centre, which realises the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the leaders there respect our sentiments," adding that they were doing their best to mitigate the sufferings of Tamils.

"We have to raise our demands to increase their action," he said.

Referring to some leaders' apprehensions in this issue - such as AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa claiming that the money collected by way of the Sri Lankan Tamils Relief Fund reaching the LTTE, MDMK's Vaiko describing it as trying to deceive the people, and the CPI's and DMDK's doubts over the aid material reaching the proper beneficiaries, he said there should be unity in this matter.

"Instead of registering the voices in different manner, if we speak in one voice, we can apply more pressure on the Centre," he said.

Meanwhile, AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa charged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister

M Karunanidhi with using the Sri Lankan Tamils issue to “divert” public attention from various problems including the spectrum allocation issue “rocking” the Union IT Ministry headed by A Raja of DMK.

In a release, Jayalalithaa said “at a time when the people were disgruntled over the DMK government’s handling of price rise and unprecedented power crisis, the Sri Lankan Tamils issue came as a Godsend for him (Karunanidhi) to divert public attention to a relatively distant issue.” She also alleged that the issue came in handy for the DMK leader to “divert attention” from the spectrum allocation issue which was “exposed” by the media.

She criticised Karunanidhi for his latest pro-Sri Lankan Tamils measures including creating a fund for them.

She also claimed credit for “first raising the issue of the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.”