Mullaitivu now a bustling town

Ready for a major election after three decades:

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

The Wattarapalai Kovil

School children returning after school

Development work in progress in the town.Pix : Susantha Wijegunasekara

A resettled family

A house being built by the Army

It is no exaggeration to state that the impression one would get visiting Mullaitivu three years after the humanitarian mission against the LTTE ended is very positive. Being one of the worst affected areas and the very last arena where the final confrontations took place, Mullaitivu had been transformed into a busy bustling town in the far north which is identical to any other developed town in the south.

Streets crowded with people roaming in search of day-to-day goods and engaged in routine chores is a common sight with buses and other private vehicles traversing the city roads for transporting people bound for various directions and carrying essential logistics.

New roads were laid with carpeted tarmac with a fine drainage and sewerage system along with street lighting and sign boards to name byroads was a promising sight to realise that proper infrastructure is being provided to these areas after many years of war.

Especially the lagoon based areas like Vadduvakal and Vellamullivaikkal where thousands of civilians broke loose the terrorist boundaries and started swimming towards the cleared areas as well as Puthumathalan and Pudukuduyirippu areas that housed the bygone terror leaders could be seen converted into peaceful villages with aforesaid facilities to live.

Clusters of newly built houses and those who are already being built is relieving to the visiting eye to understand that all those who were displaced during the final stages of the humanitarian mission have finally received a permanent place to settle themselves with no fear of losing their homelands again.

Houses to live, schools for the younger generation and better health facilities with fully-fledged hospitals and medical centres have invited the life back to these once godforsaken lands. Establishment of government offices such as the Katcheri and the police station gives not only the impression that the regular state service is running as normal as in the south but the confidence of the newly resettled civilians being looked after in a promising manner.

Most of all, the presence of the armed military or the constant sentry and checkpoints could hardly be noticed but of the helpful soldiers in plain clothing committedly engaged in constructing houses for both abled and disabled civilians.

Provincial Council Elections To get an insight into the prevailing situation in the wake of the upcoming provincial council elections in the North, the Sunday Observer spoke to Mullaitivu Government Agent N Vethanayagan who explained how the

preparations are being made to restore the civilian life in the district and to face a major election after a period of three decades.

Mr. Vethanayagan took his posting as the Mullaitivu Government Agent for the first time in July 2010 and served for six months until December. Then again he resumed his duties in November 2011 and is in the service to date.

Being the Chief Returning Officer the GA is arranging all the necessary preparations including setting up polling stations and conducting awareness programs. Since the local government elections had been conducted in two Pradeshiya Sabhas in Maritimepattu and Pudukuduyirippu in the Mullaithivu District previously in 2011 identifying polling stations had been managed without much ado, he said.

The nominations were called in between July 25 to August 1 and the authorities have identified over 52,409 registered voters in the district in the latest count. The details had been gathered from the ground level with the assistance of Grama Seva Niladaris and through the previously enlisted figures. The district has six administrative divisions with a population of 125,000 residents. Many programs are under way to issue National Identity Cards to these people of a majority has obtained by now. The rest can use Birth Certificates and Elder's Card to cast their vote.

Resettlement

The resettlement process has been carried out with due prominence since the end of 2009 and was successfully completed having the last batch of civilians resettled in September 2012. The last batch of people came into Pudukuduyirippu, the last area that had the battle. These people were resettled in Ampalavanpokkanai and Vellamullivaikkal areas and the delay was due to the completion of the de-mining process.

A batch of people from Vellamullivaikkal area who had been given temporary shelter in the Kombavil area had also been resettled in their original lands following the completion of de-mining work. Most of these people were fishermen by profession and because of this they were resettled in their original land due to the easy access to the lagoon.

The initial resettlement in Mullaitivu District was started in the two AGA Divisions in October 2009 with the gradual de-mining and presently there are no internally displaced camps in the district with the closure of Menik Farm in September 2012, he said.

De-mining

The resettlement work was conducted with the assistance of the army and the Mullaitivu Security Forces Headquarters Commander Major General L B R Mark, who was very helpful and cooperative, the GA said.

The de-mining process was also expedited in the area with the SL Army de-mining squad assisting the foreign organisations engaged in the work to complete the task as early as possible.

In the meantime, the people have started cultivating in the area especially fruits such as banana and papaya.

Migrating fishermen Another important issue in the area is migrating fishermen from the other side of the country in Puttalam and Chilaw. A large number of fisher families had tried to settle down in the Vellamullivaikkal area since there is abundant resources for fishing and protests were made by the local fisher families who staged a hunger strike recently.

Fisherman have migrated from the aforesaid areas even way before the conflict started decades ago and have been engaged in the trade for a long time. A selected set of 72 families had been granted permission to resettle in these areas since they have proven their addresses but 150 new families that tried to migrate had been refused by the ministry of fisheries and its Minister Rajitha Senaratne who visited several times.

A special meeting was held recently by Minister Douglas Devananda, members of the security forces and representatives of the fisher communities to discuss this and the migration of the new families were rejected. The existing fishermen were also advised not to use illegal fishing methods that would harm the breeding process of the lagoon fish.

Development

Talking about the development progress taking place in the district the GA said that it was highly satisfactory for a short period of two years. "In 2009 it took me about three hours to travel to Vavuniya by road during the rainy season as the roads were in a very dilapidated state. But now of course an hour is more than enough to travel to Vavuniya on the carpeted road," he said.

The power supply has also covered over 50 percent of the district along with the housing projects that are under way with various foreign bodies engaged in the process. An Indian housing project has been recently initiated to build 1,000 houses in the district. About 140 schools in the district are functioning well with a significant level of attendance being reported. Text books have been sufficiently distributed to these schools along with other facilities.