LK Advani to meet PM Manmohan Singh on Mullaperiyar dam and refugee issues

NEW DELHI: BJP leader L K Advani will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the Mullaperiyar dam issue and urge him to convene a meeting with the chief ministers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, a senior party leader said today.

At the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting held today, Advani said a delegation of MPs had met him and asked him to take up the issue of Mullaperiyar dam with the government.

"Advani feels the Prime Minister should call the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which are the two affected states, and discuss how the dam issue can be resolved," the party leader said.

During the meeting, BJP MP Balbir Punj raised the issue of the plight of refugees from Pakistan who are staying at the Majnu-ka-Tila area of the capital for the past few days. Punj had met these 28 families earlier and heard their grievances.

"Foreign Residents Registration Office (FRRO) and police are trying to forcefully send them back to Pakistan. The visa of these refugees is about to expire and they do not want to go back to Pakistan. They should either be given Indian citizenship or their visa should be extended," another leader S S Ahluwalia told reporters after the meeting.

Guwahati MP Bijaya Chakravarthi said a similar situation had arisen in Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam, alleging that government is forcing only the Hindu refugees from Bangladesh to go back.