Monday, August 27, 2012

Sri Lankan officers' training in India will continue: MoD

The Defence Ministry on Monday struck down the objection of the Tamil Nadu government against training of the Sri Lankan defence personnel at Defence Staff Services College in Wellington.

The decision of the Ministry has come close on the heels of the shifting of Sri Lankan air force personnel from Tambaram to Bangalore in Karnataka following objections by the J Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu.


Assuring that the objections of the Tamil Nadu government’s objection has been considered, Minister of State of Defence MM Pallam Raju said: "Sri Lanka is a friendly foreign country and the training will go on. Sometimes there are objections raised by local governments which we have to take into consideration," Raju told reporters in the capital.

Recently Jayalalitha wrote a letter to the Prime Minister against allowing two Sri Lankan officers Major Dissanayaka Mohottalalage Vengra and Captain Hewawasam Kadaudage to undertake 11 months training at Wellington. Calling it “reprehensible attitude” of the Centre, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had sought immediate halting of the Sri Lankan officers’ training.

In her letter, Jayalalitha also accused the centre of “excessive enthusiasm” in relocating nine Sri Lankan air force personnel to Bangalore from the air force station at Tambaram in Tamil Nadu, after earlier protests from the state government. She said that the centre should have sent back those personnel back to Sri Lanka.

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