Will continue to take up genuine issues of Tamils in Lanka: PM Singh

NEW DELHI: India has consistently made efforts to persuade Sri Lankan government to address "genuine" problems of Tamil population there, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today and asked Tamilians from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu to work together to resolve the fishermen issue.

"It is not true that we are not concerned about the well being of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka. We have consistently made every effort to persuade government of Sri Lanka to address the genuine problems of Tamil population. We continue to do so and will do in future as well," Singh said while replying to a query at a press conference here.

Observing that the government has raised the fishermen issue "on innumerable number of occasions" with Sri Lankan government, the Prime Minister said, "We feel that there is an opportunity for the Tamil population of Sri Lanka and Tamil population in Tamil Nadu to sit together to work out an arrangement between the fishermen of two countries which will be mutually satisfactory.

"I think these things are going to happen. This is the only way in which this problem of fishermen in both countries could be resolved."

He also noted that in Northern Sri Lanka there was a government of Tamil population.