Nearly 21,000 acres of HSZ land back to civilians

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

The government will vest around 21,000 acres of land in the Jaffna Peninsula, taken over for military purposes during the war, among their original owners, Land and Land Development Minister Janaka Bandara Thennakoon said.

He said the Security Forces have already handed over the lands to the government which they used as camps, check points, bunkers and other military establishments during the humanitarian operation.

“We are now looking for the original owners of these lands and we hope to take immediate measures to resolve all disputes that arose due to the requisition of civilian land for military establishments in the Northern and Eastern Provinces,” the minister said.

Minister Tennakoon was addressing the opening ceremony of newly built district offices of Land and Land Development Ministry in Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts.

The minister has already discussed this issue with all state sector officials and heads of the Security Forces in Jaffna. They have made all arrangements to launch a special programme to identify the original owners of these lands. The Land and Land Development Ministry decided to establish district offices of the ministry with the aim of implementing the approvals of the Presidential Action Committee on implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee recommendations in an efficient and effective manner.

This kind of offices will be a great support to the public to solve any land dispute, Minister Tennakoon explained. “At present we have to solve around 250,000 land disputes of the persons in the Northern and Eastern Provinces who have been displaced due to terrorism. We also have to distribute the lands owned by civilians in war affected areas which have been taken over for military establishments, among their original owners and grant the compensation. We established these offices to make these things more efficient,” the minister emphasized.

The Land and Land Development Ministry has taken measures to launch a special programme to solve the land disputes in these areas and it will be implemented in the near future on a priority basis. All problems related to lands in those areas are to be solved within next two years, Minister Tennakoon further stated.