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Land bonanza for Eastern people; PM promises more projects
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and several cabinet ministers took part in the event at the Webber Stadium in Batticaloa. Pic by Deva Adhiran
The Government yesterday handed over deeds and permits to residents of 13 divisional Secretary areas, giving them the ownership of 4,000 acres of land.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and several cabinet ministers took part in the event at the Webber Stadium in Batticaloa to hand over the deeds to 7,206 people.
Batticaloa District Secretary M. Udayakumar said this was the first time the government had given land ownership to people who had been involved in paddy cultivation and constructed houses on state land.
He said some of them had been using the state lands without ownership to cultivate and build houses for more than 30 years.
Earlier, the Lands Ministry distributed similar deeds in the Polonnaruwa, Monaragala, Anuradhapura, Galle, Ratnapura, Matara, Kurunegala, Kegalle and Hambantota districts.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the deeds could be used as a bond to obtain bank loans to develop the land.
He said it would be a regular feature for him to visit the district in future as there would be more development projects to generate jobs for the youth.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Province tomorrow, the Government will hand over to the original owners 10 acres of land the army had been using. The lands are located in Kuchchaveli, Kalmunai and Thirukkovil.