‘India ready with relief for Lanka’

India is ready to put together a major package of aid and grants to help rebuild Sri Lanka’s embattled northern and eastern regions if ...

India is ready to put together a major package of aid and grants to help rebuild Sri Lanka’s embattled northern and eastern regions if the island nation’s new government submits a proposal to the effect, Indian High Commissioner Nirupam Sen said today.

India will await a proposal from the new Sri Lankan government to work out the package, Sen told reporters here after handing over a mobile library to the Ramakrishna Mission at Point Pedro in the Jaffna Peninsula.

‘‘We understand that rehabilitation of the North-East is a priority for the government here,” Sen said. ‘‘We are ready to put together a package that will include both grants and aid. It is not going to be something that officials in New Delhi will decide but something that will be based on the needs the Sri Lankan government gives us.”

He said the Indian government was pursuing its policy of greater economic and bilateral cooperation with Sri Lanka and noted that a $ 150 million credit line had been well utilised. ‘‘The policy of India will be governed by what is best for the people of Sri Lanka and India… India will move like a sledge hammer to its appointed end.”