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| Sunday, 6 January 2002 |
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Rs 1 million allocated for route A9 repairs Road to Jaffna to be reopened by Jan. 15 by P. Krishnasamy Measures necessary to reopen the Vavuniya-Jaffna A9 land route is being initiated and a committee has been appointed to submit a feasibility report shortly, Minister of Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees, Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena told the Sunday Observer. The Minister also said that his ministry has allocated one million rupees for carrying out initial repairs to the Vavuniya-Madhu road before January 15, the date set for the commencement of free flow of goods and passengers to and fro from the uncleared areas of the Vanni. He also stated that plans are under way to set up a youth training centre in Madhu for providing vocational training, including computer training to the youth of those areas so that they could either find jobs or engage themselves in self-employment ventures. Comprehensive details of displaced people living in welfare centres, transit camps and in houses of friends and relatives are now being compiled and measures would be taken, on a gradual phase, to resettle and rehabilitate them in their own places or in places of their choice 'without exercising any compulsions'. Details of family members, those of them who need employment or educational facilities, the circumstances that reduced them to their present destitute condition and other relevant details will be collected for the provision of relief assistance. Refugee camps and transit camps will be disbanded after a specific program is drawn. A maximum possible number of convoys with food stocks and other goods will be sent to the uncleared areas of the Vanni from Monday through to Friday every week, beginning from mid January, the Minister also said. Meanwhile, the UNF government's decision, officially announced last Wednesday, to lift the 10 year ban on free flow of goods to the uncleared areas of the Vanni will bring relief to the nearly 350,000 people of those areas who have been languishing in desperation all these years and will set off normal life. The announcement has been greeted with much optimism and a sigh of relief by Tamil political leaders, civil society organisations, religious leaders and laymen alike.There is wide-spread optimism in the northern areas that the much awaited peace talks between the government and LTTE will be resumed shortly. Sources in Vavuniya quoted people coming there from the uncleared Vanni areas as having informed that the people of their areas have emerged out of their long gloom and are now delightful. Shops that remained closed in Kilinochchi town, about 90 kms north of Vavuniya, are now reported to be opening shutters to re-start business, according to the same sources. The items that will be allowed unrestricted to the uncleared Vanni areas will include medicines, children's milk foods, biscuits, chocholates, mineral water, beverages, kerosene and food needed for the old and the ailing. These were hard-to-get items in those areas for nearly 10 years. Petrol, diesel, cement and iron rods are to be issued on a restricted basis. The coupon system that existed in Vavuniya for getting petrol and diesel for motor vehicles and motor bicycles will be done away with. Steps are also being taken to do away with the residence/temporary stay pass system that is prevailing now in Vavuniya. Under this system several categories of passes are being issued to persons living in or visiting Vavuniya restricting the number of days or months of stay and an obligation to renew the validity of the passes if and when necessary. Vavuniya GA K. Ganesh said that this pass system will be done away with after formal approval by the Ministry of Defence. |
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