05.05.13 MEDIA RELEASE GOVERNMENT MUST RECONSIDER TAKING OVER LARGE EXTENTS OF PEOPLE’S LAND
Created on 05 May 2013
The government has made moves to acquire over 6381 acres of privately owned land in the Jaffna peninsula, which it says is for a public purpose. The public purpose is presumably for the security forces. The pasting of notices on trees in Valikamam North under section 2 of the Land Acquisition Act coincides with preparations for the Northern Provincial Council elections in September this year. It appears to be a hurried plan on the part of the government to acquire this large extent of land prior to the establishment of a legitimate and popularly elected civilian administration for the formerly war-stricken Northern Province.
There is concern in the Northern polity that the purpose of this land acquisition is to change the demographic composition with settlers from outside being registered on the Northern electoral lists. In Kokilai, Mullaitivu and adjoining villages such as Vannankulam, Uradikulam, Thaddamalaikkulam, Pannaiyandaukulam, Akkaraivelli, Vathamadu, Kamankulam, Amayankulam, there are media reports of 3000 such families being settled.
The government move to take over the land of the war-affected people has caused agitation and panic amongst the thousands of affected people in over 24 villages whocontinue to be displaced and living in camps who now stand to lose their lands forever and given rise to disaffection amongst the majority of people living in the Northern Province. The National Peace Council notes that shortly after the end of the war in May 2009 the government promised to resettle the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in their original places of residence. This necessarily implied that private land would be restored to their rightful owners. This was one of the recommendations in the government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.
NPC is very concerned about the retreat of the government from promises it made and the use of strong arm action against the people using the security forces. The general practice in the country is that when the government wishes to take over large tracts of land for a public purpose it discusses this matter with the affected population and with their political representatives, and gives the necessary time for legal objections to be made through the judiciary. We also note that the recommendations of the LLRC are completely opposite to the course of action that the government has embarked upon.
The LLRC recommended that the government should de-militarize the administration of the North as soon as possible and release private lands taken over by the security forces to the people. Internally Displaced Persons have been internationally recognized as having a right to return to their original lands ever since 1948 when the Palestinians fled Palestine when the new state of Israel was set up. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was set up specifically to deal with the right of Palestinians to return to their land. More recently, this right of return and restitution of their property was recognized by the UN in the case of Bosnia as well. Resettlement in their former housing was perceived by the displaced as important for reasons of morality, justice, and economic rehabilitation.
In recent years, the return and reintegration of internally displaced persons and refugees have come to be regarded as essential to peace processes in war-torn societies. An increasing number of human rights documents and peace agreements contain paragraphs on housing and property restitution and the right of displaced persons to return to their homes of origin. The UN has also recognized the right of the Internally Displaced to go to courts to establish their right to restitution of their property. The National Peace Council believes that any decision that severely affects the lives of large numbers of people needs to be taken in consultation with the elected Provincial Council after it is constituted. Therefore we urge the government to reconsider its decision to take over the vast extent of privately owned land in the North in the light of what the LLRC has recommended with a view to fostering national reconciliation in a manner that meets with international standards.
Governing Council
The National Peace Council is an independent and non partisan organization that works towards a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It has a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democratic rights of all the communities are respected. The policy of the National Peace Council is determined by its Governing Council of 20 members who are drawn from diverse walks of life and belong to all the main ethnic and religious communities in the country.
Geophagia – Maheshwari Trust by V. Sagadevan
A sand loot worth of Rs 4,000 million in Vadamarachchi East is now on process in past four years,to rob the money of thousands of millions of people .Who can question against this?
More than 4000 million rupees of public money has been plundering over the past 04 years ,through the sand business in eastern region of Vadamarachchi by Douglas Devananda’s Maheshwari Trust Fund. If this money had been spent in a proper way by Vadamarachchi East Divisional Council, for its development, to improve the standard of the life of people, Regional Council of Marutankeni would have been upgraded as the Municipal Council of Marutankeni. The quality of life of that Regional Council also would have been increased. But what happened? T hat money alone was spent only to set up a luxurious life of a group of people. In the name of The Maheshwari Trust, funding by non-governmental organization (NGO) is defalcating the public property in a mass level .Who ever the villagers question against this corruption are put under the direct threat of Minister Douglas Devananda.
During the time of Vadamarachchi East divisional meetings, Minister was beating, scolding, slapping members of his party .There were many opportunities that he was getting involved in such violated activities in the presence of the state government officers , people of that region and the community members. The population is considering that this is the way that he is indirectly threatening the people.
Vadamarachchi in the Eastern Province which is consists of its sand resources and natural-resources, has been distressed by the Minister Douglas Devananda’s NGO. There is no program set up for rearrange the deteriorating natural resources or enhance the quality of life of rural people through this derived income from sand operation.
The rapidly carried out development projects in the Jaffna district like housing, and public and private infrastructure in the coming years are expected to require tens of millions of sand Cubes. There is no reason that people believe in Maheshwari Fund, on their willingness to work with the Justice in future. Jaffna District People fear that the minister will exploit fraudulently the money which will come for the Development of Jaffna, to fulfill the political objectives of his own benefit with help of his colleagues through his sand business.
Conditions are breached.
Ended 04 years of war, still the resettlement has not yet been completed. There is an underway process going on behind the screen in Valikamam North to usurp the plots of land of people. Tens of thousands of Tamil youth are leaving the country as they have no Job and insecurity etc. The level of cultural corruption and the robbery incidents have increased like never before in the Jaffna district. The children who lost their parents do not even have any security in care homes.
At this situation, people question is anyone ready to guarantee that heavily earned money through illegal sand by Maheshwari Trust Fund, will be used for the public well-being
A sand loot worth of Rs 4,000 million by Douglas Devananda’s NGO
Vadamarachchi: the sand robbery
Sunday, May 5, 2013
A sand loot worth of Rs 4,000 million in Vadamarachchi East is now on process in past four years,to rob the money of thousands of millions of people .Who can question against this?
More than 4000 million rupees of public money has been plundering over the past 04 years ,through the sand business in eastern region of Vadamarachchi by Douglas Devananda’s Maheshwari Trust Fund. If this money had been spent in a proper way by Vadamarachchi East Divisional Council, for its development, to improve the standard of the life of people, Regional Council of Marutankeni would have been upgraded as the Municipal Council of Marutankeni. The quality of life of that Regional Council also would have been increased. But what happened? T hat money alone was spent only to set up a luxurious life of a group of people. In the name of The Maheshwari Trust, funding by non-governmental organization (NGO) is defalcating the public property in a mass level .Who ever the villagers question against this corruption are put under the direct threat of Minister Douglas Devananda.
During the time of Vadamarachchi East divisional meetings, Minister was beating, scolding, slapping members of his party .There were many opportunities that he was getting involved in such violated activities in the presence of the state government officers , people of that region and the community members. The population is considering that this is the way that he is indirectly threatening the people.
Vadamarachchi in the Eastern Province which is consists of its sand resources and natural-resources, has been distressed by the Minister Douglas Devananda’s NGO. There is no program set up for rearrange the deteriorating natural resources or enhance the quality of life of rural people through this derived income from sand operation.
Due to this sand problem which occurred in Vadamarachchi east , a young man , Tevarasa Ketisvaran of Kutattanaiyai, who loves the environment , was shot by gunmen and murdered in gruesome manner on 31st December 2010 at 9.00pm,Because of this incident, the 1st day of new year 2011 became a fateful day for Vadamarachchi east. These sorts of events bring up a major threat to the democratic process on the civilians in the region.
The rapidly carried out development projects in the Jaffna district like housing, and public and private infrastructure in the coming years are expected to require tens of millions of sand Cubes. There is no reason that people believe in Maheshwari Fund, on their willingness to work with the Justice in future. Jaffna District People fear that the minister will exploit fraudulently the money which will come for the Development of Jaffna, to fulfill the political objectives of his own benefit with help of his colleagues through his sand business.
Conditions are breached.
1. 20,000 Cubes of sand, per month (7,000 Tipper - loads) has been granted permission by the Bureau of geological scale mines. But the amount of sand removed was many times higher than that particular number. No cold feet to prevent illegal activities because of their political background.Since there is no answer for the above questions, from either Minister Douglas or his Maheshwari fund, our society will jump in to the struggle without doing any preannouncement. There will be a plan implemented by us to stop this illegal sand mining in the area of Marutankeni by the Maheshwari Fund and in order to make the owners of sand mining places , people in the area and the people of Jaffna District benefited.
2. The copy of the bond of Mining of sand should be displayed in the area of mining. That condition was breached. Not even of the copies of the environmental report and the local regional council’s permit License were displayed at the place of mining sand.
3. The trippers lift more than 3 cubes of sand are not allowed to do transport ,anywhere in the Northern Province .But The 7 Cube trippers of Maheshwari Fund, carry out the loads of sand again and again all the way.
4. Regulation of one way license is to load the sand only at one time. But the Maheshwari financed trippers loaded 02 - 03 times by violating the rules.
5. In addition, the NGO that aims to make money in this way can not be used for political purposes. But claiming that they are using this fund in order to serve the general requirement of public , Minister Douglas Devananda and his group are using them for their Fraudulent political programs . Maheshwari Fund has not given any obvious answer for the People's allegations against this process of misusing of funds.
Ended 04 years of war, still the resettlement has not yet been completed. There is an underway process going on behind the screen in Valikamam North to usurp the plots of land of people. Tens of thousands of Tamil youth are leaving the country as they have no Job and insecurity etc. The level of cultural corruption and the robbery incidents have increased like never before in the Jaffna district. The children who lost their parents do not even have any security in care homes.
At this situation, people question is anyone ready to guarantee that heavily earned money through illegal sand by Maheshwari Trust Fund, will be used for the public well-being
