Multifarious development activities under way :

A new era begins in Kilinochchi

By P. Krishnaswamy

The Kilinochchi district was a business hub and meeting place for traders from the South and the North, with the longest bazaar extending four kilometres up to Paranthan. It was visited by thousands of villagers everyday and was bustling with life before it was ravaged and reduced to an abandoned ghost city under the LTTE terrorist regime.

Entrance to Kilinochchi

The LTTE, establishing its de facto headquarters there, running all agricultural, business and livelihood activities for nearly 25 years until the terrorist outfit was defeated in May 2009, marking the beginning of a new era of multifarious development activities of the UPFA Government to restore the city to its former glory.

Huge amounts of money have been allocated, mainly by the Ministry of Economic Development, for development projects in the spheres of agriculture, infrastructure, road network, industries, housing and livelihood facilities.

Landmines planted by the LTTE have already been cleared in many areas, with only a small area yet to be cleared. All displaced people have been resettled in areas where they lived before the conflict. A total of 54,804 anti-personnel mines, 109 anti-tank mines and 192,637 unexploded objects have already been cleared from the mine-infested areas.

The project-wise break-up of the total Rs. 9,975.89 million allocation of the Ministry of Economic Development is Rs. 1,197.73 million for Emergency Northern Recovery Project, Rs. 5,506 million for North-East Housing and Reconstruction Program, Rs. 326.07 million for Re-awakening Project, Rs. 245.2 million for North-East Community Restoration and Development Project, Rs. 338.4 million for Wadakkin Vasantham (Northern Spring) projects, Rs. 152.67 million for Conflict Affected Region Emergency Irrigation Project, Rs. 456.80 million for Conflict Affected Region Emergency (Roads) Project, Rs. 300 million for Pro-Poor Economic Advancement and Community Enhancement Project (Irrigation), Rs. 315 million for Strengthening Civil Administration in the Northern Province, Rs. 30 million under the de-centralised Capital Budget, Rs. 262.42 million under the Maga Neguma, Rs. 18.75 million for Gama Neguma, Rs.6.14 million for Divi Neguma, Rs. 13.45 million for Samurdhi and Rs. 6.5 million for development of schools in the district under the 5,000 Feeding Schools Development Project.

An amount of Rs. 110.57 million has been spent under the activities of the Rehabilitation of Persons, Properties and Industries Authority.

The break-up is Rs. 15.25 million for self-employment, Rs. 65.25 million for housing loans. Rs. 4.23 million on housing grants for government officials, Rs. 16.74 million on Payment for deaths and injuries caused by the war against terrorism, Rs. 9.60 million for repairs of Iyyanar Temple, housing grants, tank renovations and construction of a community hall at Pallikadah village.

Transmission pylon

Under the Disaster Management Program, two projects were implemented at an expenditure of Rs. 10.24 million. Hundred projects were implemented under the ‘Preparedness Planning’. Fifty projects were implemented under training and public awareness program. Rs. 79.9 million was spent on relief assistance (drought and flood) and 14 projects were implemented on dengue eradication.

A total of 79 projects at an expenditure of Rs. 53.86 million was implemented on establishing women’s development centres, providing livelihood loans and construction of buildings.

With regard to the restoration of the communication network, the Kilinochchi and Pallai areas have been brought under land line connections with ADSL services.

In an effort to promote a user-friendly modernised postal sector, Rs. 39.61 million was spent for the Kilinochchi post office, Rs.9.68 million for the Paranthan Post Office, Rs. 9.99 million for the Poonakary post office and Rs. 10.8 million for the Pallai post office.Work on the construction of the building for the Engineering and Agricultural Faculties of the Jaffna Campus has been partly completed. Construction of buildings for the Sri Lanka–German Technical College (Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development) has also been partly completed.

At the Pachchilaipalli village, 100 toilets were constructed at an expenditure of Rs. 10 million and a social care centre was constructed at a cost of Rs. 1.2 million. Over 125 disabled persons receive Rs. 3,000 per month and another 246 disabled persons received equipment.

To improve road transport, 105 temporary route permits have been issued to private bus owners and the railway line construction work is in progress. Allocating funds for establishing a central bus stand and a CTO is also under consideration.

Public library.

A sum of Rs. 200 million has been allocated for the construction of a building for the public library. Under the program of promoting ‘Active Community Sports Economy’, Rs. 325 million has been allocated for the construction of a sports complex of international standard. An amount of Rs. 351.66 million was allocated for providing buildings to improve district administration.

Vehicles abandoned by the people who fled to safeguard their lives at the peak of confrontations, which had remained heaped at the vehicle yard, were given back to the owners.

Over 2,270 motor bikes and nearly 5,500 other vehicles were given to the owners under this program. Infrastructure development at Ponnagar GN Division, which is an important educational and industrial hub, was also focused on with the provision of road networks, water supply, drainage and power supply.

Strengthening democracy

Under the program for strengthening and up-grading local democratic institutions, the Karachchi Pradeshiya Sabha is to be upgraded as an urban council and a new pradeshiya sabha for Kandawalai is to be established. The papers have already been forwarded to the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils.

A completed district administration building

The Kilinochchi hospital

A housing project in Kilinochchi

The district had a very long history of agriculture, the main crops being paddy, highland crops, fruits and spices, with the largest of all tanks in the Northern Province, the Iranamadu tank, providing irrigation facilities to over 20,000 acres of arable land.

Efforts are now under way to rehabilitate the Iranamadu tank. The current production of rice, chillies, red onions, green gram and fruits in the district is projected to be more than double in 2016. It is anticipated that 58 tonnes of chillies, 4,050 tonnes of red onions, 720 tonnes of green gram and 5,740 tonnes of fruit, including mangoes, banana, papaw and pineapple, would be produced in 2016.

The strategic plans for boosting agriculture include renovation of minor tanks/uplifting irrigation system, crop diversification and efficient water saving techniques. Plans have also been formulated for the establishment of a fruit village and export market-oriented variety promotions. Productivity and quantity enhancement and post-harvest developments are also under the focus of the agrarian authorities. Coconut cultivation has been undertaken on a large scale, with payment of subsidy and pipeline irrigation facilities.

Under the self-reliance and livestock development program, the current production of milk, eggs, chicken, mutton and beef is to be more than tripled in 2016. Milk production is projected at 4.65 million Litres, eggs at 13.78 million, chicken at 232.88 tonnes, mutton at 93.15 tonnes and beef at 139.72 tonnes. This is also part of the program to address malnutrition among the local communities.

Veterinary surgeons’ offices have been set up in Pachchilaipalli, Poonakary and Kandavalai under the animal husbandry promotion programs.

Although the fishing community in Kilinochchi is comparatively small, with only about 400 registered fishermen, assistance has been extended to them by the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development and by the provincial administration to promote the industry. The fishermen are mainly confined to fresh water fishing. Fish fingerlings have been stocked in the eight perennial tanks and the 21 seasonal tanks.

Training for youth

Investments have been made to train unemployed youth in an effort to help them engage in small-scale industries and self-employment ventures. Rs. 1.9 million has been spent for providing training to 87 youth under the Star Garments training program. Rs. 12.7 million has been spent on imparting bus driver training to 96 youth and Rs. 0.02 million has been invested for palmyrah-leaf-based training to 20 youth.

A sum of Rs. 0.72 million has been invested on modernising the Uruthirapuram Handloom Centre and Rs. 2.2 million has been spent on providing training to youth on masonry, house-wiring, plumbing, aluminium fabrication and coir-based training. Micro credit was provided to 40 youth and ‘appropriate technology transfer training’ was provided to 80 youth at an expenditure of Rs. 0.99 million. Over 15,000-palmyrah seedlings were planted, district offices were developed, training was imparted to 55 trainees, two model farms were developed and sales centres and production centres were established under the palmyrah development program.

Steps have already been initiated to develop the cooperative sector. There are 111 fully-functional cooperative societies in the district, which include MPCSs, palm resources cooperatives, fresh water fisheries cooperatives, thrift and credit cooperatives, livestock breeding cooperatives, enterprise development cooperatives and school cooperatives. In 2009-2012, Rs. 176.83 million was spent on the construction of buildings for the cooperative societies.

The total cost of providing an uninterrupted and reliable power supply to the Northern Province is Rs. 3,200 million. This will help improve economic and living standards of the people, their lifestyle, and introduce more industries.The ongoing and future projects for Kilinochchi and Jaffna districts on water supply and sanitation cost a staggering Rs. 21,777 million and include improving community-based rural water supply and sanitation in post-conflict areas of Jaffna and Kilinochchi (Rs. 268 million), rehabilitation of Kilinochchi water supply scheme (Rs. 982 million), and construction of the Kallaru water-supply scheme (Rs. 18 million).

A sum of Rs. 14,210.5 million has been spent on the development of both the 315.4 km road network and the transport system in the Kilinochchi district. Of that, Rs. 10,560.5 million has been spent under RDA programs while Rs. 3,650 million had been spent under non-RDA (rural road development) programs.