Land Grabs: Exultant State V. Agonized Citizen
Land grabs i.e. the acquisitioning of land by the State/Military has been in the news more often than necessary throughout this year. This last week we saw it becoming headline news again as we learnt thatSriraghavan Kadirgamar the son of late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar had filed for a Writ of Certiorari in the Court of Appeal to prevent his ancestral lands in the Maviddapuram area, in North Valikamam (which were previously in the HSZ) being taken over by the military for security purposes ostensibly to build a Defence Batallion Headquarters for the Jaffna District. This petition by the son of an illustrious person again brought home the apparent devil may care attitude, which the government has been employing in its land acquisition procedure. This petition also follows upon the earlier petitions filed in the Court of Appeal and in the Supreme Court by thousands of landowners in the Valikamam area protesting the acquisition of their lands for the purpose of building the aforesaid Defence Headquarters. These cases are still being heard before the courts.
Lakshman Kadirgamar
The government in April 2013 issued a notice under section 2 of the Land Acquisition Act that the lands were to be taken for a ‘public purpose’. But, the purpose that has been stated is in order to benefit the military not the public as stated in the petitions that have been filed. Furthermore, the government in its notice claimed that the owners could not be identified but more than 2000 owners have now sought to petition the Courts to prevent their lands being taken. They claim in their petition that most of them have been in touch with state officials and had been listed as displaced and had received welfare support from the State. The total area of land to be taken in the Valikamam area is approximately 25.8 Sq. Km or 6400 acres and as is claimed in the petitions almost 2/3s the size of Colombo which is a very vast area.
It is indeed troubling that while someone from an illustrious family may have other means of income and several other residences (not diminishing the importance one places on ancestral land) those who have been displaced and living on the charity of others would not be able to withstand the effects of losing their lands and source of livelihood in that area. This is especially so when one considers the public purpose is for the purported establishment of a Defence Headquarters, when all over the island there has been an increase in the call for the military to return to their barracks especially now four years after war. Read More
