Sri Lanka’s Vanni district Member of Parliament Charles Nirmalanathan questioned the Sri Lankan government’s contradictory action in granting lands to Tamil and Sinhala community.
While addressing the Sri Lankan Parliament on Monday (September 6), he pointed out that Sri Lanka’s forest department is trying to grab the Tamils’ lands, but the forests are being destroyed to provide the lands to the Sinhalese people.
He says, “The Forest Department has owned the one hundred seventy acres of land in Mullaitivu’s Kurundur region since 1920. In 1972, the land that belonged to the Sri Lankan Forest Department was distributed to the Tamil people through a state permit. Now the Forest Department has attempting to grab 170 acres of the lands distributed to people.
People who have been farming in this 170-acre land since 1972 are shocked. They have no other land to live if they leave, so the Prime Minister should pay attention to this issue.
More than 10,000 acres of forests are being destroyed to provide the lands to the Sinhalese people through the Diviloya project. But, at the same time, the agricultural lands of the Tamil people are being grabbed. So we would like to ask ‘if this is one nation, one law’.
He said the Department of Archaeology, Forest Department, Wildlife Department, and Mahaweli Authority intend to grab the Tamil people’s agricultural lands and native lands.”
He further said that the Department of Archaeology, Forest Department, Wildlife Department, and Mahaweli Authority intend to grab the Tamil people’s agricultural lands and native lands.
