Mercy Mission-UK, which had dispatched 840 tonnes of relief material for the Tamil war refugees of north Sri Lanka, said on Tuesday that the Sri Lankan Red Cross (SLRC) had been given the Bill of Lading to enable it to claim the goods lying in Colombo harbour since July 9.
Refuting the SLRC’s claim that it had not received the Bill of Lading, the Liaison Officer of Mercy Mission-UK in Chennai, Agni Subramaniam, said the shipping agent had given it to the SLRC last Friday.
“We are having the copy of the acknowledgement from SLRC of the same, which was earlier sent to the shipping agent,” Subramaniam told Express via e-mail. The SLRC official, Suren Peiris, was wrong when he stated that the Indian Red Cross (IRC) paid the Chennai-Colombo freight, Subramaniam pointed out. “Till now, SLRC has not been interested to contact us (either me or Mercy Mission-UK), who are the original dispatcher of relief materials. Also there is no transparency about the materials’ fate from SLRC,” he charged.
However, Suren Peiris continued to maintain that the SLRC had not received the Bill of Lading. But, he added that this was not an issue now as the shipping agent had allowed the SLRC to take charge of the cargo.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow TNN on Facebook and Twitter )