Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, who had settled down in Coimbatore, have requested the district collector to take steps to return the passports and land documents that were provided to them by the Indian authorities.

During the internal conflict in Sri Lanka, many Tamilians from the island nation arrived in Tamil Nadu as refugees. While many returned home, some settled down in various places in Tamilnadu. More than 1000 such refugees who had arrived in 1983-84 live in Coimbatore. The district government issued free pattas and a loan of Rs.90,000 in 1991 for them to build houses in areas like Kalapatti, Sundarapuram, and Chinnavedampatty.

Residents of Anjukam Nagar today presented a petition to the District Collector Archana Patnaik to write off the loans, like the government had done for the previous batches of refugees. The petitioners claim that a number of such requests were given in the past, but the administration has not handed over the passports and land documents to them.

They add that as per the Right to Information Act, the government had ordered in 2011 that the documents be given to them. They urged the district administration to do the needful and return the passports and land documents to them.