(RTTNews) -  Indian government on Wednesday offered to help in evacuating the thousands of civilians trapped in the fighting between the government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the Island nation.

More than 30,000 people have escaped from the Vanni in recent days, despite the best efforts of the LTTE to keep them back as a human shield. Last weekend, the Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services the Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen led a delegation of Government and United Nations officials and representatives from the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies to visit the welfare centres in Vavuniya to both assess the current situation and discuss plans to look after these IDPs until they can go home.

by Prakash Pararajasingham 

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka (AFP) – Shopkeeper Subramaniam Sudaharan says he is lucky to be alive after his two teenage sons were shot dead as the family fled Sri Lanka's increasingly brutal war zone. 

What was left of the devastated family -- he, his wife and a younger boy -- were among 440 war-wounded evacuated from the conflict area to the nearby port of Trincomalee, leaving behind 100,000 people to run the gauntlet to safety.

The Government will soon implement a massive water supply scheme in the Jaffna peninsula utilising the water of Iranamadu tank. Drinking water facilities are expected to provide to the people in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts too after they are resettled in their original dwellings, Minister of Water Supply Mahinda Amaraweera said.