New beginning for resettled - Part I:

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New beginning for resettled - Part I:
Rebuilding the North
Only 27,400 IDPs remain to be resettled and out of which 19,000 are from the Pudukudiiruppu and Pudumathalan areas. They are unable to be resettled yet since the area is heavily congested with landmines. First part of this article was published yesterday
Some students leave the welfare centres daily to study in places like Vavuniya, Mannar and return in the evenings. Some have even established sales outlets in the welfare centre area itself to sell groceries and other items and there are Laksathosa outlets also in the camp premises.
Resettlement of IDP families
When the media team visited the 56th Division Headquarters of the Army, Brigadier Napagoda told the media team that demining work in the Vavuniya District has been carried out successfully and 3,425 IDP families consisting 11,000 persons have been already resettled in the district. He said that in the district only one more village remains to be demined. He said that construction of the Northern Railway track has also been carried out successfully upto the Tandikulam railway station and from that point onwards the construction of the railway track is to be undertaken by the Indian construction company.
New houses for IDPs
The 56th Division soldiers have also reclaimed abandoned paddy fields and which will be ready for harvesting in the next Maha season. Among other activities being carried out by his Division in the district includes construction of houses, clearing habitats for settlement and building irrigation facilities and erecting wells. Many Sinhala and Tamil families who had left the Vavuniya district and were living in other areas have returned to their original settlements.
To facilitate these facilities the Engineering Unit of the 56th Division has started a program of constructing 10 housing units each month. Returning families are also provided with roofing sheets and cement for construction of houses. They are also being provided dry rations and financial assistance for self-employment.
The Brigadier pointed out that several volunteer organizations have come forward to construct housing units for re-setters, particularly a Sri Lankan expatriate philanthropist named Ryan Perera has come forward to construct a number of housing units.
Under the program named 'Sisaranasara' he has provided Rs 35 million for construction of 35 houses and another Rs 4 million for reconstruction of 20 houses in the Sinhala village Kokeliya housing units are also being constructed in several other villages. These activities are being carried out in about 30 villages in the district, which include, Kairayankulam, Nedunkulam, Pirappamadu and Veemangal.
Lands cleared for cultivation
There had been seven Tamil families in the village of Veemangal who had left the village in 1978 with children and grandchildren. Twenty five of these families have returned to live in the village. The Army has cleared the jungle lands for them and provided roofing sheets, cement and other requirements including financial assistance. The Army is also constructing houses for some of them under their '10 houses a month' program. Students have been allowed to sit for examinations, while those who were forced in to terrorism are being rehabilitated.
What the government, the President, the Defense Secretary, Minister Basil Rajapaksa, other Ministers and the Security Forces are now doing is to give back the life they aspired for. Our soldiers are even building houses for the children of LTTE fighters, despite the fact their parents were determined to kill them and have even killed their colleagues.
Visits North during weekends
Paddy lands that remained as fallow lands for over 20 years are being cleared and lands are now being prepared for cultivation during the next harvesting season.
People from the South, East and other parts of the country now freely travel to the North and now 30,000 to 40,000 people from other areas visit North daily and this number increases to over 100,000 during the long weekends.
The Major General emphasized that the country has been liberated with great sacrifice and each and every inch of land that has been liberated is soaked with the sweat, blood, determination and sacrifice of our soldiers and no one could be permitted to spoil these great sacrifices.
It is the duty and responsibility of everyone to look after it, consider it as their own in a similar manner to looking after their own children and protecting it in whatever way it is possible. Refuting the allegations made by some TNA politicians that IDPs are not being settled in their former habitats, the Major General said that instead of making such baseless allegations they should praise the Security Forces for the excellent work they are doing in resettling the IDPs and providing them with all their requirements.
He said that the Security Forces are resettling the IDPs based on the lists prepared by the Grama Niladharis and Divisional Development Secretariats about their original places of habitat and no one is being resettled outside these areas and there is no forced resettlement.
They should appreciate that the Security Forces achieved a record feat in resettling over 265,000 IDPs from the original number of 295,000 within a period of few months which no other country could achieve. He said that the Security Forces could not resettle IDPs without ensuring their security and the remaining 20 odd thousand IDPs from Pudukudiiruppu and Pudumathalan which are heavily mined areas as demining in these areas are being carried out.
Once it is over and the areas are declared as mine free by the UN Organization, immediate action will be taken to settle the remaining IDPs in those areas and provide them all the facilities.
No sleep for several days
Explaining about the last leg of the war he said that everyone in the frontline including the Division Commanders carried out the assault on the enemy forces without a wink of sleep for several days and the terrorists made every effort to make a break in from the West of the front line as they were hard pressed from the North and South by the 53rd and 57th Divisions. If that happened the hardcore terrorists would have entered the Mullaitivu jungles and we would be still fighting the war.
He said that in the last two days of the battle all the terrorist leaders, including Charles Anthony, Pottu Amman, Soosai and others were killed and they were identified by the Army Intelligence Units. The terrorists leader had been in the lagoon for several days and was killed on the last day of the war on May 19. Photographs revealed how his feet and hands had turned whitish as a result of long expose to water.
The writer is the Media Centre for National Development Director, Mass Media and Information Ministry.
Courtesy : Daily News