Jaffna situation improves: varsity reopens tomorrow

by Ananth Palakidnar

The situation in Jaffna has improved to a great extent with the University of Jaffna due to be opened tomorrow, reports from Jaffna said.

Minister of Disaster Management Mahinda Samarasinghe visited Jaffna accompanied by a high-powered UN delegation on Wednesday.

The University of Jaffna will be re-opened tomorrow, after six months since it was closed in August last year. The Registrar of the University of Jaffna told the Sunday Observer that the University management has made arrangements for accommodation, travelling and other requirements of the students who would arrive from outside the Jaffna Peninsula.

The total strength of the students of the University of Jaffna is around five-thousand and thousand of them are from the outstations, according to the Registrar.

All six faculties including Medical and Agriculture will resume lectures this week. To accommodate the students, several private houses have also been acquired by the University management, the registrar said.

Meanwhile, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and the UN team toured the areas in Jaffna and looked into the humanitarian activities carried out in the region. They also visited the harbours at Myliddy and Karainagar which was re-constructed by the Navy recently.

Along with these two re-constructed harbours and the harbour at Kankesanthurai three harbours in the Peninsula are now operational in unloading essential items brought from Colombo.

Minister Samarasinghe also expressed satisfaction over the humanitarian operations carried out by the security forces in the Peninsula, reports said.

Three private airlines are now operating between Colombo and Jaffna with Aero Lanka resuming its flights a few days ago, reports said.