“People now must be resettled”

Rajitha sees no wrong in Wilpattu Settlements

By Zahrah Imtiaz

Around 2175 IDP families are to be re-settled in Jaffna and Trincomalee said Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Rajitha Senaratne on 28 May.

Cabinet has allocated a sum of Rs 160 Million to provide facilities to resettle these families in the north. The Minister added this was part of the government programme to eventually resettle all IDPs.

Having said this, the Minister also responded to the controversial issue of IDPS being resettled on the boundary of Wilpattu National Park.

“There are various opinions about the settlers near Wilpattu. Minister Champika Ranawaka too has said there is no issue. The Presidential Task Force appointed by the previous regime was asked to resettle people and it was they who allocated land near the national park” he said.

He explained: “The boundary of the reservation has been taken back and some may say it is right or wrong but I don’t see anything wrong with that, no matter what government did it. We cannot just  chase people away and take away their homes and their reserves alone. The boundaries of national parks are not very clear either. We know that even a road goes through the Wilpattu National Park. “

Speaking of the people who were resettled, the Minister Said, “Over 100000 were chased away from Mannar by the LTTE. These people now must be resettled, that is the humane thing to do-be it Muslim, Tamil, Sinhala. There are people first and they have every right to this land as much as I or anyone else. If the resettlement was done the wrong way, then it is wrong, and that mistake should be accepted by the previous government and the Cabinet, including all of us who were in it. The District Secretariat simply followed the orders of the Committee, he has not done anything wrong” said the Cabinet spokesperson.