As railway authorities prepare to reconstruct the tracks to the north, families that had put up temporary sheds along the then defunct railway line and squatted on land belonging to the railway department are faced with a host of new problems.
Ms. Gayathri and her family are among 247 families who have lived for the past 19 years in temporary zinc sheds built alongside the northern railway track.
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| A cottage on what was once the railway line. |
Gayathri was displaced after the military declared the residential area in Vasavilan a High Security Zone where her home was located.
Following her displacement from Vasavilan June 16, 1990 by the military; Ms. Gayathri lived with her three children in a tin sheet cottage on the Kokuvil - Jaffna section of the railway line for the past 19 years.
Today she is on the lookout for alternative abode and hopes authorities will attend to her problem sympathetically. She is unable to move into her own home and does not have the financial capacity to rent out a house on her own.
“House owners are asking Rs 50,000 as advance, if I want to rent a house,” Gayathri who works as a daily paid domestic aide told the Sunday Times.
The family was able to live in this cottage on the rail track undisturbed as the Colombo - Jaffna train service ceased operations.
Now, the grama niladhari has ordered her to evacuate the place by the weekend as Government has commenced clearing the area to re-commence the operations of the Northern Line.
Ms. Gayathri and some 247 families who had constructed make-shift houses along the railway line have no place to go. “If the Government will allow us to resettle in our own places, we are happy to go back to our homes,” they said.
Prior to June 1990 four trains operated between Jaffna and Colombo. One in the morning at 6.00 am; the Uttara Devi in the morning at 11.55 a.m; the Yal Devi at 12.25 pm and the night mail at 6.00 pm. |
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