Vakarai resettlement begins in a fortnight
by Ranga Jayasuriya
The resettlement in Vakarai is set to begin in a fortnight.
Seventy-five percent of displaced people will be resettled under the
first phase of the resettlement drive.
Accordingly, people are expected to return to 13 of the 16 GS
divisions in Vakarai, Kathiraveli and Verugal at the end of this month.
De-mining activities in these areas are now in progress.
Electricity has already been provided to Vakarai.
The restoration of infrastructure and an uninterrupted supply of
essentials including food and medicine have also been prioritised in
addition to the new power supply. President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited
the East on February 3 to meet the soldiers and officers who liberated
Vakarai and to inspect the resettlement and reconstruction activities in
the area.
The resettlement drive in the liberated coastal strip would be in
three phases. The first phase includes Palchenai, Vakarai and
Kathiraveli, which originally housed seventy-five percent of the
displaced population.
A senior army officer overseeing the resettlement activities said the
mine threat in these three areas, from where the LTTE made a hasty
retreat, is relatively low.
"The pace of resettlement is akin to the progress in de-mining," he
said. Damaged houses and other State buildings will be reconstructed at
State expense under the "Jathika Saviya programme".
Meanwhile, the security forces last week found a large cache of
armaments which had been buried by the Tigers before their retreat.
The security forces in a search operation yesterday recovered 28 T 56
guns and one Rocket Propel Launcher.
On Wednesday, troops recovered 162 T-56 guns, 62 communication sets
and two 81 mm mortar launchers which had been buried in an abandoned
house in Ichchalampattu.
(See also...)
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