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Refugees
returning from Vanni to Jaffna are facing a new problem. Not anything to
do with the terrorists but a situation where most of their houses are being
occupied by troops or badly damaged.
Around 40 percent of the houses in Jaffna are being occupied by the security forces. Some of the returnees told The Sunday Times they understood the necessity for their houses to be occupied by troops but the authorities must understand that the refugees must have houses to start life all over again after having undergone so much hardships.
In response a military spokesman said, "we are occupying the houses just to provide security for the people, otherwise we will have to set up pocket camps all over the place."
In the meantime many of the returnees are being put up at temporary camps, while some have opted to stay with their relatives.
He said that around 500 people were returning daily from the Vanni region.
Some refugees said that those who fled Jaffna to the Vanni were undergoing hardships because of the shortage of food, drinking water, shelter and medicine.
One refugee said during the past nine months food supplies were inadequate and irregular to such an extent that his family of five had barely managed to survive. Medicines were also hard to get with an Aspirin costing as much as Rs. 8.
"When the people of Jaffna fled on the orders of the LTTE we thought they might take care of us but they didn't. When leaving Vanni there was no threat from the LTTE but we had to pay Rs. 200 each to leave," another refugee said.
Of the 500,000 people who fled Jaffna during the Riviresa operation about half have returned so far, Jaffna Government Agent C. Pathmanathan said.
While food and other essentials are available in Jaffna, the people say a major problem is the lack of electricity which is provided only at night and that too at a voltage that is much lower than needed.
According to the GA, Jaffna requires 40 MW a day but gets only one MW.
Sri Lanka Ports Authority has to collect millions of rupees as rent, it is alleged, from a Japanese firm which took over 19 acres prime land in the Port for development.
Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Shipping M.N. Junaid told The Sunday Times that the agreement between the SLPA and the firm had been signed during the last regime.
The firm, it is alleged, came to Sri Lanka saying it would bring Rs.100 m but had not brought in a cent. Instead it had taken nearly Rs. 150 m in loans from local banks, claimed Mr. Junaid.
The SLPA has been asking for the rent but the company has said the Authority should consult them before fixing the rent. While this tug-of-war goes on the country is losing millions, said Mr. Junaid.
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has rejected an appeal by Minister and SLMC leader M.H.M. Ashraff to pay Rs. 500,000 as compensation to a party member whose house and property in Samanthurai were damaged in 1990.
SLMC Digamadulla district parliamentarian U.L.M. Mohideen had claimed around Rs. 794,000 as compensation for damages caused to house, furniture, fittings and property.
Government valuation officers who made an assessment in 1995 had recommended that Rs. 66,000 be paid as compensation, but Mr. Mohideen has rejected that estimate as being 'outdated' and 'ridiculously low'.
As the dispute continued, Mr. Ashraff recently submitted a Cabinet paper proposing a compromise with the payment of Rs. 500,000 to Mr. Mohideen.
But Public Administration Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake objected to such a payment saying there was no provision in the law for Mr. Mohideen to get Rs. 500,000.
After Finance Ministry officials reviewed the position, President Kumaratunga also submitted a Cabinet paper saying she could not agree to the proposed payment of compensation over and above the Chief Valuer's assessment.
Two 'thousand rupee' notes that hit page one on UNP's journal 'Siyarata' turned out to be tickets to hear SLMC leader and Ports Minister Ashraff sing,love songs it is said.
The 'note' with SLMC leader adorning it was meant to raise funds for SLMC's Rs. 80 m. headquarters in Vauxhall Street.
Governor Central Bank when told of the note, brushed it aside as it was not a counterfeit. The watermark any paper has he said. 'So long as the note is not a dud it does not concern me. If it did prison is the punishment.'
An amused SLMC spokesman said that what looked like notes were really tickets to listen to a cassette by the minister played to an audience at the BMICH.
A Buddhist group is protesting against what it sees as British interference in Sri Lanka's internal affairs and will be meeting a British High Commission official tomorrow to voice their feelings.
Federation of Buddhist Organisations (FBO) Secretary Gallage Punyawardana, said Britain's brokering of a deal between the PA and the UNP recently was seen by his group as undue or wrongful interference in another country's internal affairs.
He said they would be meeting Second Secretary, Nick Astbury to express their views and tell Britain that such interference would not help but hamper the process of end
Attempts by the opposition in the Colombo Municipal Council to include former Mayor K. Ganeshalingam in the Finance Committee has met with mixed reactions from the ruling UNP.
Sources said that however a final decision on the members to be appointed to the Finance Committee will be decided on April 23, when the CMC meets for its first session.
The Sri Lanka Indonesia Friendship Association, The Sri Lanka Indonesia Business Council in collaboration with the Indonesian Women's organisation (Dharma Vanita) have organised an Indonesian and Sri Lankan food fiesta and bazaar on April 26 at the Indonesian Sports and Recreation Centre at 400/50, Sarana Mawatha from 3pm to 9pm.
The Australian High Commission will hold an ANZAC Day commemorative service at the war graves section of the kanatte on Friday at 7.30 am.
All bulk electricity consumers of the CEB and LECO, who have private generators have been ordered under Emergency Regulations to produce their requirements only from their generators until further notice.
The regulations provide that any person who being a bulk supply consumer, a person who uses or consumes a capacity of 50 KVA of electricity or above, of either the Ceylon Electricity Board or the Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Ltd., shall use his generators for the supply of electricity to his premises. The electricity supply of those who contravene the provisions of these regulations may be temporarily discontinued or disconnected without prior notice.
Tea factory owners of the Southern Province complained that their generators could be used only eight hours at a stretch and then they had to be switched off allowing them to cool and this would hamper their production in no small measure.
However, CEB Distribution and Consumer Service Division, Additional General Manager, S.C. Amarasinghe told The Sunday Times that those who faced difficulty as a result of these regulations could seek a compromise depending on the genuineness of their problems and therefore, there was no reason to panic.
A US Committee which studied the conditions of refugees in Sri Lanka has urged the govt. to take urgent relief and rehabilitation measures or seek help from the international community in this regard.
The committee for refugees which probed ground conditions in Jaffna peninsula, long controlled by separatist Tamil guerrillas before the govt. troops wrested control late last year, said the town was "in practice, if not in name, under martial law and many people live in fear.
"On the surface, there is a semblance of normalcy in Jaffna city but one does not need to scratch too far below the surface to see that the situation is far from normal.
Routine life, marked by checkpoints, passes, curfews, restrictions, is further marred by large scale unemployment with most residents surviving on food doles by the govt., "the committee said in a report quoted recently by India's 'Hindu' paper.
The committee has asked the authorities here to desist from preventing Sri Lankans from seeking refuge in India. It also urged New Delhi to provide asylum to those in genuine need.
A legal row between the Parish priest of St. Anne's Church, Wattala and some Catholic residents of the area over the dumping of garbage is continuing with some residents saying they cannot even attend Church services now because they were criticised from the pulpit.
The ugly dispute began early this year when the Parish priest, Fr. Ernest Poruthota launched a marshy land development project which involved the dumping of garbage in an area near the church. Residents of that area, mainly Catholics objected strongly to what they saw as a big stink, a health hazard and a public nuisance. Some 65 residents signed a petition and one of them filed action in the Wattala Magistrate's Court seeking an injunction on the Parish priest. The petitioner also submitted letters from two doctors who had treated patients suffering from ailments allegedly related to environmental pollution.
After the Court issued an iterim injunction, Fr. Poruthota's lawyer recently filed a counter petition challenging the claims of the residents. He said the charges were ill-founded and ill-motivated and produced letters from the two doctors saying they had been misled. The priest's lawyer said 14 of the 65 petitioners had also claimed they were misled into signing the petition.
The case is to be taken up again next month, while all the garbage dumped in one area has now been covered with earth. The residents say this process might now pollute the area's water supply but the priest says such fears are unfounded. As the stink continues, the residents have appealed to the Church hierarchy including the Vicar General to intervene in bringing about justice.
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