India has taken action to extend the medical support and de-mining activities in the North.

The tenure of service of a group of Indian doctors working among the Internally Displaced Persons has been extended by two months.

Indian doctors, mostly from the Indian Army’s medical corps, have been working with IDPs since the beginning of March, more than two months before the war against terrorists was ended.

Currently, the doctors run a field hospital in a camp in Vavuniya where the largest number of IDPs is housed. This is the third extension granted to the field hospital unit.

"The field hospital unit has a 60-member medical team comprising surgeons, pediatrician, medical specialist and lady medical officers. The team so far has already treated over 21,000 IDPs including cases of gunshot wounds, trauma, head injuries and those related to general surgery and orthopedics at Menik farms camp at Vavuniya,’’ the Indian Defense Ministry had said, reported the Hindustan Times online.

A 30-member armed forces medical team from India arrived in Sri Lanka on July 23, to relieve the medical personnel already there since March, this year.

De-mining

Extending the Indian participation in de-mining activities, over 80 former Indian soldiers have arrived in Sri Lanka to join Indian personnel already here for the task of clearing landmines.

The new group has teamed up with compatriots working since 2003, mainly in the Northern districts of Mannar and Vavuniya, in defusing mines.

While 50 of the latest batch of Indians are attached to the Pune-based Horizon Group, 32 are from Sarvatra Technical Consultants, a company that is based in Gurgaon, Haryana. Sarvatra will send 32 more men.

Both are led by retired Indian Army officers who are keen to help Sri Lanka now engaged in post-war construction.

"It has been a wonderful opportunity. We are happy that we have been able to contribute to the building of Sri Lanka”, Horizon chief and retired Major General Shashikant Pitre and the director of Sarvatra, retired Major General Prem K. Puri, had told IANS.