Colombo: Sri Lanka's post-war programme
of rehabilitating thousands of displaced people in the north
has crossed its targeted goal of 76,000 families and has been
largely successful, a senior minister has claimed.
Basil Rajapaksa, the minister of economic development
said out of the near 300,000 internally displaced people
housed in camps at the end of the war in 2009, only 12,000 now
remain there.
"The government has resettled 92,000 families over and
above the estimated 76,000 families", Rajapaksa told
reporters.
Explaining the increase in the number of people,
Rajapaksa said the returnees from Colombo and overseas,
including those who went to India as refugees, had swelled the
numbers.
"More people have come back with deeds and other
related documents of their properties", Rajapaksa said.
Civilians began crossing in to government territory
from the Wanni district, which the LTTE controlled prior to
2006 when the military operations began.
He said most of those still in refugee camps were
coming from the former LTTE nerve centre of Puthukudyiruppu
(PTK).
"Demining of PTK has become slow due to the presence
of vast numbers of mines," he said.
Rajapaksa said in the east, the other conflict-torn
area, the resettlement programmes have run smoothly with
300,000 being resettled.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 15:39