Land release in the north is still a huge challenge in post-war Sri Lanka
A senior government official in Jaffna revealed that over 2500 acres of land still being held by the security forces and police have been identified as private lands.
Jaffna District Secretary Maruthalingam Pratheepan speaking at the District Coordinating Committee meeting in the presence of the President and other ministers said the tri-service and police are still holding vast areas of both private and public lands.
“Among these lands said to be with the military, navy, air force, and police totaling 2624.29 acres have been identified as private lands in the security zone. Apart from this, 951 acres are government lands”.
The Jaffna DS told in front of the President that 23,850 acres were held by the security forces in the high-security zone for long and still a balance of 2624.29 acres of land is yet to be released.
“Among these lands said to be with the military, navy, air force, and police totaling 2624.29 acres have been identified as private lands in the security zone. Apart from this 951 acres are government lands”.
Vast tracts of land still being held by the Air Force were also discussed in the Jaffna DCC meeting on the 31st of January.
With regards to the land held by the Air Force, it is seen those lands belong to the Civil Aviation Authority. Now, those lands are used as a runway by the Air Force, the DS informed the meeting attended by Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources, Ramalingam Chandrasekar and Bimal Rathnayake Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament among others.
He highlighted the importance of compensating those whose lands are still being occupied for Air Force needs.
“In this process, we have a total of 1009.87 acres with the Air Force base. So, there is a need for continuous action to be taken to pay compensation for that. Hence, for us, based on a request by the Civil Aviation Authority, there is a need to expand the aircraft runway”.
However, nearly 100 people have not agreed to accept the compensation for their lands according to him.
“So, as the first step, we need to pay compensation for these lands. Although there are lands belonging to 643 people, 538 have agreed to accept the compensation for these lands”.
In Jaffna district alone huge amounts of land are with the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Among that, a fifth of the lands have been places where people already lived or inhabited.
Maruthalingam Pratheepan also stressed in front of the President there is a need to release where people have been living.
“In our district, 72,348 acres of land are with the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Of this at present 14,171 acres of land have been identified as lands where people already lived or inhabited by the people. Therefore, there is a need to release those as well”.
Tamil MPs have been constantly raising the issue of land return in and out of the parliament with details of the private lands being still held by the government under ‘national security’ even after the war came to an end years ago.
Armed with facts and figures along with detailed maps, the extent of lands still being held by the Military, Navy, and Air Force have even been shared with diplomats and ambassadors of various countries in Sri Lanka.
The Jaffna DS in his presentation before the president at the DCC meeting pointed out that nearly 5000 acres of land that were inhabited by the Tamils earlier are being retained by the Forest Department and only a small portion of it has been identified for release to the public.
“At the same time, 5397 acres are found to be belonging to the Forest Department. In that, a bare minimum of 397 acres alone have been identified to be released as places where people in the past have been living or inhabited and there is a need for the Forest Department to retain the balance of 4999 acres in their custody”.
Even former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithiripala Sirisena, and Ranil Wickremesinghe who earlier attended such DCC meetings in the North and East assured the release of private lands to the respective Tamil owners, but it has now been again officially announced nearly 2500 acres of private lands are still being held by the state security forces, while those who are still awaiting their return of lands are struggling for their livelihood.
