Colombo: The government has stepped-up
the resettlement of the Tamil civilians displaced following
the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, with 2,500 members of the
community housed in Vavuniya leaving for resettlement in their
native lands in Jaffna.
The Tamil civilians were displaced during the military
offensive that crushed the LTTE in May and ended Sri Lanka`s
decades-old civil war, which killed at least 80,000 people.
As many as 2,500 people housed in `welfare villages`
in Vavuniya left for resettlement in their native lands in
Jaffna. The "Uthuru Wasanthaya" Task Force operating on the
instructions of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa has expedited
the resettlement process, an official statement said today.
The programme is being mooted through the Government
Agents (GAs) of Jaffna and Vavuniya and under the supervision
of chief of the task force and senior presidential advisor and
parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa.
K. Ganesh, Government Agents of Jaffna, said the
civilians will be transported daily from the welfare villages
to Jaffna for resettlement that begun yesterday.
In addition, 150 people of 61 families from the
Vavuniya district and 300 people of 87 families from the
Mannar district were also resettled yesterday.
Meanwhile, the government has speeded up plans to
provide electricity to the entire northern province in the
next three years.
Ministry sources said said 13 power projects are to be
inaugurated in the province. The projects, to be implemented
at a cost of over SLR 106 million, will benefit more than 800
families in the Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar
districts in the Wanni.
Bureau Report
