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Buffer zone plan: Prime Minister booed
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse was jeered in his own constituency of Hambantota after he argued with a group of villagers demonstrating against government moves to resettle tsunami victims away from their original homes close to the beach.

The incident occurred when the Ven Thibbatuwave Sri Sumangala Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatta Chapter was speaking to the group of protestors who were complaining that they were not willing to leave their original houses.

But Prime Minister Rajapakse had intervened to say that it was a government decision that all persons within the 100-metre zone of the beach could not rebuild their houses if they had been fully or partially damaged.

The Prime Minister had left the area amidst jeers. In Galle town yesterday, a group of shop owners protested against government plans to restrict reconstruction within the 100 metre zone from the beach.

Meanwhile, residents of Boosa in Galle yesterday took to the streets protesting that they were not getting sufficient assistance and relief aid, despite the government receiving large volumes of foreign relief material.

Many of them had lost almost everything and demanded a better deal. "Where is the foreign assistance", "Fisheries minister are you sleeping", "Why are our children not given school books", "We do not want 'hora' committees", "Give us pots and pans for cooking" were some of the slogans chanted by the group. They claimed that they had not got coupons for dry rations which the government had promised.

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