President Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered the Director of Archeology to immediately stop the acquisition of land in the Northern and Eastern Provinces until further notice.

This order was made following a discussion held between the President and Tamil MPs of the Northern and Eastern Provinces at the Presidential Secretariat.

Lands related issues of the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces, bringing a political solution and the development of the provinces were to be discussed at the Presidential Secretariat on May 11, 12 and 13.

However, it was decided to hold the discussions only on the 11th and 12th after it was agreed to discuss the development of the province on a separate day.

During the discussion, the representatives of Tamil political parties pointed out to the President that the Wildlife Department, Mahaweli Development Authority and the Department of Archeology are jointly occupying the lands belonging to the Tamil people in an unfair manner.

They pointed out that the Department of Archeology is carrying out this process by naming various lands as archaeological sites in a haphazard manner.

The representatives requested the President to order the heads of the relevant government agencies to prevent the forcible land acquisitions until the matter is investigated.

Furthermore, they have also requested the President to release the LTTE suspects who have been arrested under that Prevention of Terrorism Act by abolishing it.  

The President has questioned the Attorney General about the issue and the Attorney General has said that an immediate decision will be taken in this regard.

The People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization representatives said that they have already had discussions with the President about the same issues, but the decisions taken were not implemented. Therefore, they requested that action be taken following the recent meeting.

Source – Aruna