Citizenship to descendants of India

The cabinet has approved a proposal to amend the Sri Lankan citizenship law, said cabinet spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yappa, at the press briefing yesterday.

 

This proposal was submitted by the Prime Minister. 28,500 Tamils who are descendants of India and living in India as Sri Lankan refugees will be benefited by this amendment.

 

There are 80,000 Tamils who left Sri Lanka following racial riots of July 1983 living in India. But 28,500 of them who are citizens of Sri Lanka by decent, prefer to return to Sri Lanka. It is to accommodate them, the amendments are being proposed, said the cabinet spokesman.

 

Both Laws, one, granting citizenship to foreigners, i.e. special provisions No. 34 of 1983, and the other, to grant citizenship to Indians, i.e. provision No. 35 of year 2003, are to be amended, the Minister said.