E-Paper
India renewing interest in Lanka's NEP
India's growing interest in NE province is evident from the Indo-Lanka joint statement, writes PK Balachandran.
India, which kept off the Tamil-speaking North Eastern Province (NEP) of Sri Lanka after its seven-year politico-military intervention ended in disaster in 1990, is now renewing its interest in the area.
The Indo-Lanka joint statement issued on Friday at the end of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India bears testimony to this.
But India's efforts could run into difficulties because the LTTE, which dominates large parts of the province, will want to be involved in the developmental schemes.
The other factor, which will come into play, is the security situation in the NEP, given the current violent trend and the overall fragility of the ceasefire.
Successful implementation of India's plans for the NEP will therefore critically depend on the maintenance of the ceasefire, the continuance of the peace process, and the attitude of the LTTE.
India, along with the rest of the international community, is urging the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to maintain the ceasefire and begin talks.
However, it is still not clear how New Delhi proposes to tackle the LTTE factor, given the fact that that outfit is banned in India and the LTTE itself is highly sensitive to Indian intrusions.
The LTTE tends to recall the bitter experience it had had between 1987 and 1990 when it had to battle the formidable Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) across the length and breadth of the NEP.
Proposed Indian projects in North East
As per the joint statement made at the end of President Rajapaksa's Indian visit on Friday, India is to set up a 2x250 MW coal fired power plant in Trincomalee, on the eastern coast, as a joint venture between the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).
India and Sri Lanka are now going to prepare a master plan for realising the full economic potential of Trincomalee and its environs.
The emphasis will be on the development of infrastructural facilities in this area, a strategically important one, but severely neglected since the ethnic war took a violent turn in 1983.
The Indians already have a presence in Trincomalee. The Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) has taken on long lease, the 99 World War II giant oil tanks there, and is rehabilitating 30 of them to be used as an oil storage facility in collaboration with the Sri Lankan, state owned, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).
Interest in Tamil North and North West
Going beyond Trincomalee, India is now going to provide financial and technical assistance for the reconstruction and development of the war-ravaged North Eastern Province as a whole.
The details are yet to be worked out, but immediately, India is to build a library and a stadium in Jaffna in the north.
There is going to be Indo-Lankan collaboration in the exploitation of the resources of the Palk Bay area in North (Western) Sri Lanka.
Interestingly, this is at the instance of the Sri Lankan government, which perhaps wants to stress its active interest in the Palk Bay area, which has gained much importance recently because of the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP).
The SSCP is expected to trigger great economic changes on the Indian side. And in course of time, if there is no activity on the Sri Lankan side, the Palk Bay/Palk Strait area could become an Indian lake.
Clearly, it has now become imperative for Sri Lanka to participate in the development of the area to be able to have its interests heard, attended to, and attained.
The joint statement said that India wanted Sri Lanka to present its proposals on the development of the Palk Bay area in the form of a paper which would be studied by an Indo-Lankan Experts Group.
The experts' report would be considered during the negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
According to the joint statement, Sri Lanka has shed some of its serious reservations about the Sethusamudram project and has acknowledged that it will bring in its wake development opportunities for the island also.
