Displaced people in camps in Vavuniya and Jaffna are being used for election propaganda by the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) for next week’s local polls in the areas, residents said yesterday.
Jaffna residents going through the form |
They said the UPFA was assuring voters in Vavuniya and Jaffna that their family members in camps would be released if they voted for ruling party candidates. An application form was being circulated in Jaffna seeking information from residents regarding their family members or relatives in welfare camps with an assurance of their early release, the residents said.
The application form seeks details such as the name of camp, the names of family members and details of the applicant who will be undertaking the responsibility for those released from the camps. The forms are being circulated by Jaffna’s main Sri Lanka Freedom Party candidate Rajadurai Ratneshwaran.
“I have been authorized by the government to distribute these forms to the people and make arrangements to resettle the displaced people in Jaffna. An officer from the office of Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa has been appointed to co-ordinate matters,” he said.
Hundreds of people gathered at Mr. Ratneshwaran’s Jaffna office during the past two days to collect application forms. The move follows an assurance by the government to Minister and EPDP leader Douglas Devananda that he could handle the resettlement of some 40,000 displaced in Jaffna.
Mr Devananda said he planned to resettle displaced people from Wednesday and had already chosen some from Menik farm in Vavuniya and welfare camps in Jaffna. The move by the UPFA to allow parties contesting under its banner to handle resettlement programmes goes contrary to the government’s earlier stance that the people could not be resettled till the tough screening process was completed. |
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