India, Feb. 16 -- ChennaiChief minister MK Stalin on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention in providing the legal status of registered Sri Lankan Tamil nationals sheltered in India up to January 9, 2015, and urged him to rescind earlier instructions that barred consideration of citizenship applications from Tamils from the island nation on humanitarian grounds.

He urged the Union government to issue an executive clarification waiving passport and visa requirements for either citizenship or long-term visa applications, based on verified identity documentation issued by the Tamil Nadu government and to delegate appropriate powers to designated district-level authorities for streamlined processing.

"These i...