The Tamil United Liberation front has appealed to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to intervene and stop the scheme of registering lands in the Tamil-dominated North and East. The process is flawed and would leave most Tamils landless and homeless, it has said.
“No one can succeed in collecting the required details asked for in the questionnaire…issued by the Ministry of Lands and Land Development for the registration of ownership of lands under the new scheme,” said V. Anandasangaree, TULF general secretary, in a letter to Mr. Rajapaksa. “The people very genuinely feel that this scheme is neither justifiable nor beneficial to them. They also feel that this is yet another scheme to harass them and are convinced that the Government has an agenda of its own for collecting the details asked for in the form,” he added.
The scheme has been started in places where people were still being resettled, in stead of in districts where normality had been attained long ago. In the North and the East, many people did not have any documents, several had died without a will.
“The Problems arising from certain properties cannot be solved by the Ministry of Lands. Let those problems be handled by the Court of Law and not by the civil or military officials…In respect of disputed property the parties can go to courts is the dispute relates to private lands. Let them go to the Government Agent if the dispute is about crown lands,” he said.
IS