Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today addressed the Indian-origin Tamil community at Norwood Grounds in Dickoya and assured them that India will support their endeavours towards peace and prosperity, the Indian Express reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government and people of India are with you in your journey towards peace and greater prosperity,\u201d he said. Earlier in the day, he inaugurated a Rs 150 crore super-speciality hospital in Dickoya town that was built with Indian assistance. Dickoya is a subdistrict of Dimbula, one of the six primarily tea-growing regions in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
Modi congratulated the Tamil community for their hard work and said that Sri Lanka has benefitted from it.\u201d If Sri Lanka today is third largest exporter of tea, it\u2019s because of your hard work,\u201d Modi said. \u201cPeople all over the world are familiar with famous Ceylon Tea that originates in this fertile land,\u201d he further added.<\/p>\n
Calling for celebrations over the diversity between Sinhalese-speaking population and Tamil-speaking people, Modi said, \u201cDiversity calls for celebration and not confrontation. Sinhala and Tamil people and languages existed harmoniously.\u201d He also said that Sinhalese language should be a matter of \u201cpride\u201d for the people. \u201cYou speak one of the oldest-surviving classical languages in the world. It is a matter of pride that many of you also speak Sinhala,\u201d Modi said.<\/p>\n
Stressing the need for strengthening \u201cthreads of unity and harmony\u201d between Indian and the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, the prime minister said, \u201cWe remember your forefathers.<\/p>\n
Men and women of strong will and courage who undertook the journey of their life from India to then Ceylon.\u201d He also praised some of the original inhabitants of the community. \u201cA great icon of India, MGR was born in this soil establishing a lifelong connection. You produced one of the finest spinners in the world, Muttiah Muralitharan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister also said that he is aware of the steps taken by Sri Lankan government for the development of the community. \u201cSri Lankan Government is taking active steps to improve your life which includes a Five-year Action plan. India will fully support their effort in this direction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will continue to work tirelessly for your socio-economic development in all possible ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talking about the bilateral deals between the two nations, Modi said, \u201cWe have decided to extend 1990 Emergency Ambulance Service, currently operating in Western & Southern Provinces, to all other Provinces.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder Indian housing project in Sri Lanka, 4000 houses being constructed in up country areas, happy to announce an additional 10,000 houses,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Colombo Gazette<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today addressed the Indian-origin Tamil community at Norwood Grounds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-srilankan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}