Minister Bathiudeen refutes JVP allegations:

No food scarcity in IDP welfare villages

by P. Krishnaswamy

Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Rishad Bathiudeen has refuted recent JVP allegations that IDPs at the Vavuniya and Chettiklulam welfare villages were facing a food scarcity and were buying food items from traders at exorbitant prices, including infant milk food at Rs. 2,000 per packet.

Adequate quantities of dry rations and infant milk food are being distributed among the IDPs in addition to supplies from INGOs and NGOs.

The issue of congestion in some welfare villages was also being handled systematically and with the phased removal of IDPs from welfare villages for resettlement, the problem would be resolved before long, he said.

A spokesman for the Vavuniya District Secretariat said that every member of an IDP family is issued 400 grams of rice or wheat flour per day in addition to sugar, lentils and vitaminized vegetable oil.

The infant milk food distributed was quite adequate and there was no need for the IDPs to buy essential food items or milk food from traders outside.

About 4,000 packets of infant milk food were supplied a few days ago by a Colombo-based NGO, the spokesman said.

In addition to the number of IDP families being moved away from the welfare villages for resettlement, over 8,000 applications have been received from relatives who are willing to accommodate IDPs in their households. Around 3,000 applications were from the Jaffna district and the District Secretariat receives about one-thousand applications daily. After the applications are processed and approved in the near future a considerable number of IDP families would be moved from the welfare villages, the spokesman said.

National Coordinator of the Disaster Preparedness and Response Division (DPRD) of the Health Ministry, Dr. Eeshara Kottegoda Vithana told the Sunday Observer that all contingency plans for the monsoonal rains expected any time are now in place with a strong surveillance system to prevent any water-borne or vector-borne diseases spreading.

Medical Consultants’ quarters and kitchen rooms at the Chettikulam Base hospital and a Baby Unit, constructed under the auspices of the Italian government were opened on Wednesday. The Italian Government has also constructed over 600 toilets in Zones 01 and 04. The number of toilets for the use of IDPs was in keeping with the guidelines of the World Standard for Disaster, Dr. Kottegoda said. A Drug Storing facility funded by the Italian Government (Rs. 5 million) was also set up last week. Every water bowser entering the welfare villages was being checked for its chlorine level, monitored by PHIs and support groups from the Italian Government and Oxfam.

Arrangements are under way to rectify sub-standard sanitary facilities in certain welfare villages, he said. Thirteen ‘trishaw-ambulances’ are being operated to transport patients and those who cannot be treated at Primary Healthcare Centres and Referral Centres to the Chettikulam Base Hospital. Ambulances are being sent to the different zones to transport patients who need specialised care and treatment. Caesarean sections are being performed at the Chettikulam Base Hospital. There are two physicians, two paediatricians, one surgeon and one VOG working full time in the hospital and the number of beds has been increased to 450 from 150, Dr. Kottegoda said.

One-hundred-and-twenty doctors are working in sixteen Primary Healthcare Centres and six Referral Centres in welfare villages, he said.