The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Efforts to send relief materials to Sri Lankan Tamils hit a roadblock

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Saturday, Apr 18, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Efforts to send relief materials to Sri Lankan Tamils hit a roadblock

N. Anand

Directorate of Sugar objects to ‘export;’ State hopes to get clearance soon

CHENNAI: Efforts by the State government to send relief materials to Sri Lankan Tamils hit a roadblock on Friday with the Directorate of Sugar objecting to “export” on the grounds that some private firms had failed to meet their export obligations.

The sudden development would delay the export of the second batch of relief materials to 40,000 Sri Lankan Tamils by a couple of days.

Chief Secretary K.S. Sripathi had set April 17 as the deadline.

To meet this, sugar and clothes were bundled and kept ready in different godowns during the first week of April itself, while utensils were packed just a few days ago. Rice was not touched as Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) officials expected delay in getting clearance certificate.

On Friday, the State government received Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) nod to export rice and dhal.

Talking to The Hindu, a TNCSC official said: “Till yesterday, we were concerned about the export of rice. Today, we received objection to export sugar. This will delay the whole process as we cannot send the goods piecemeal. [Private firms imported sugar over a period of time and this has to be compensated by exporting it.] We told the officers concerned that the sugar was procured by us from government-owned mills and it was not reasonable to club them with the export obligations of private firms. Moreover, these items are being sent to Sri Lanka on humanitarian grounds.”

“We have given our explanation and are expecting to get clearance soon. Customs officials are likely to inspect the bundles on Monday. Thereafter, it may take two or three days to ship these materials to Sri Lanka,” he said.

The kit consists of food items, utensils and clothes. While the first bundle consists of 15 kg rice, 2 kg toor dhal, 1 kg sugar, 2 soaps, tea packets, tooth paste and tooth brush, the second consists of 2 nos. of sambar and rice bowl with lids, 2 spoons, 2 plates and 2 tumblers. The third bundle comprises a sari, dhoti, nightie, lungi, 2 towels and 2 bed sheets.

The first batch of 80,000 ready-to-use kits was sent on November 13, 2008.

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