News
Special boards to deal with NE land issues
The setting up of special mediation boards to resolve more than 140,000 disputes related to state land in the Northern and Eastern provinces is being proposed by the Justice Ministry. Justice Ministry Additional secretary Anusha Munasinghe said that in line with a recommendation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) the ministry had proposed to Cabinet that special mediation boards be set up to provide speedy solutions to hundreds of people facing disputes over land.
She said that 13 community mediation boards were active in the Jaffna District and 39 in the Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Ampara districts with more than 600 mediators, but these boards had no authority over state land. The official said the special mediation boards would be given authority to deal with state and private land disputes.
She said the community mediation boards were able to solve about 55 per cent of the 150,000 disputes. The decision comes after a study by the Asia Foundation showed there are 140,709 disputes related to state lands in the north and east.