TNA to file case against land acquisition end of this week

Opposition political parties and civilians in the Northern Province are looking at initiating legal action against the military’s acquisition of lands that were demarcated as a high security zone (HSZ) during the period of the war.

TNA MP, M. A. Sumanthiran said the party was collecting information and statements to file a case against a proposed military cantonment in the Palaly area. An official notice has stated that about 6,400 acres around the Palaly airport in the North and East of Valikaman were being acquired for a military cantonment. Sumanthiran said this would affect 35,000 people and 9,900 households. Of these, preliminary enquiries had suggested that at least 5,000 people would file a case. So far over 500 petitioners’ names had already been collected, Sumanthiran said. “If the land is to be used as a military cantonment, that means the Army would be settling their families in the village, seriously affecting the demography there,” he alleged. There were similar issues elsewhere, with 9,000 extra voters from Weli Oya being annexed to the Mullaitivu area, all of them Sinhalese families, Sumanthiran alleged. About 1,000 Sinhalese had been settled in pockets in the Vavuniya area as well, he said. This was also happening in the Eastern province, where land was being cleared to settle more people, Sumanthiran said. The TNA noted that Section 2 notices under the Land Acquisition Act were pasted on trees in Valikamam North in Jaffna and this area would be acquired for military cantonments. Sumanthiran explained that owners of these lands live just outside the so-called illegal HSZ, in camps maintained by the government. They have lived there for over 25 years. And although their title to these lands were checked and cleared by a Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in 2006, they were not permitted to go and resettle on the assertion that demining was incomplete.