CUDDALORE: Dalit Panthers of India MLA D. Ravikumar has alleged that the rights of the refugees from Sri Lanka are totally neglected and they are made to live in sub-human conditions in Tamil Nadu.

They had been in Tamil Nadu since 1990, but their lot had not improved a wee bit in the past 16 years, Mr. Ravikumar said while speaking at the Cultural Night-2006 organised by People's Watch-Tamil Nadu as part of its "Campaign against torture" here on Saturday.

There were 61 refugee families in Kattumannarkoil Assembly constituency, but they had no decent dwelling units. They were made to stay in shelters made of polythene sackcloth.

Mr. Ravikumar noted that there were 103 refugee camps all over the State but none could boast of basic amenities. No body seemed to bother about their plight. The Government was acting as if it was doling out alms to the refugees for their sustenance.

They were given frugal assistance: Rs.200 a month for the breadwinners, Rs.144 for women, Rs.90 for first-born children below 12 years, and Rs.45 a month for the second and successive children.

The MLA further said the inmates of these camps were, at best, looked at with suspicion, and at worst, treated as criminals.

"Such an ignominy heaped upon those who had sought asylum in our country is really a cause for concern," he said.

No separate law

Mr. Ravikumar noted that the country was not only a host to refugees from Sri Lanka, but also from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. But there was no separate legislation to govern them: for, they were still being treated under the Foreigners' Act.

He said when he brought to the notice of the Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi the appalling conditions prevailing in refugee camps, the latter had assigned him the task of inspecting them and submitting a report, and he would start with the Mandapam camp.

The MLA alleged that in the name of rounding up the rowdy elements, the present dispensation was putting behind bars the frontline leaders and functionaries of the DPI and other social organisations.

Even though the National Human Rights Commission had termed encounter deaths as murders, such incidents continued to happen in the present regime.

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