Pak gives USD 1 mn to Lanka for rehabilitation work in North

Pakistan today gave USD 1 million to Sri Lanka for a housing project to rehabilitate conflict affected people in the Tamil dominated Northern Province where India is engaged in massive infrastructure upgradation work, including construction of 50,000 houses.
The Pakistani envoy, retired Major General Qasim Qureshi handed over a cheque of USD 1 million to the Lankan government, Pakistan High Commission here said in a release.
This donation will be utilised by the government to construct 220 houses for the homeless people in the villages of Puthukuduyrippu, Narikkadu and Moddaikadai in the Mannar district.
Notably, the Pakistani housing assistance in the former conflict zone came in the backdrop of an on-going housing project funded by India to build 50,000 homes for the war affected people.

Since the end of three-decade-long conflict in 2009, India has stepped up its development projects in the island country.
Indian assisted projects worth USD 1.63 billion are in the fields of housing, infrastructure, education and health, in addition to the extending of livelihood support.

Commenting on external assistance towards the rebuilding of the former conflict zones, a key government ally from the pro-Sinhala nationalist JHU or the Heritage Party last week came out in criticism of the government.
It charged that the government had not built a single house for the displaced Sinhala community in the north.
This is at a time when India has funded projects to provide housing for the minority communities, JHU argued.