Symbolic harvest festival held in Karadiyanaru
by P. Krishnaswamy
A traditional harvest festival symbolic of thanksgiving to the
deities to celebrate paddy harvest in 131,000 acres in the Eastern
Province was held yesterday at Karadiyanaru, a former LTTE bastion, with
the participation of Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa MP as
the chief guest. More than 10,000 people belonging to all three
communities attended the event zealously marking a new era of communal
harmony and brotherhood in the province, Provincial Minister M.L.A.M.
Hisbullah told the Sunday Observer.
All paddy lands that remained fallow for over two decades due to LTTE
anarchy in the province were brought under cultivation after the
liberation of the region from the terrorists and establishment of the
Provincial Council, with the authorities extending several incentives to
the farmers, including free seed paddy, tractors for ploughing and
fertilizers at highly subsidised rates.
The once LTTE stronghold Karadiyanaru, along the A-5
Batticaloa-Badulla highway, remained inaccessible for over two decades
before the liberation of the East and the village during the festival
was full of people whose faces were gleaming with new hopes, the
Minister said.
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