THE ongoing government’s resettlement scheme for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) came to a close in the Eastern Province on Tuesday (27) after Army troops with the help of state agencies and the Police formally completed the re-location under ‘Eastern Re-awakening’ project.
The final batch, composed of 9524 easterners, belonging to 3217 families who had been living in the IDP centers in Vavuniya, was thus brought to the East on a staggered basis in the past couple of days after the Army with the help of respective Divisional Secretariats in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts found alternative dwellings for them.
“Ten Divisional Secretariats in Trincomalee and other Divisional authorities in Batticaloa and Ampara initially identified and subsequently traced their former dwellings, family members, next of kin, blocks of land and other possible alternatives for residence in all three districts before those people were willingly re-accommodated with supply of building materials, funds for any eventual reconstructions, stocks of dry rations, cooking utensils and transport facilities and basically everything else,” according to Major General Srinath Rajapaksa, Commander, Security Forces, East.
With the completion of the resettlement, all seven IDP centers and Transit camps in the East hitherto remained functional were closed down after civil administrative authorities with the support of the Army, Police and armed forces introduced a comprehensive welfare infrastructure for those returnees.
“Those newly resettled people were assisted by the Army in numerous ways to find new avenues of income in the agricultural and fishing sectors and other jobs in respective areas. Some families were encouraged to do poultry farming distributing chickens among them. Roofing sheets for those who wanted to put up new houses in their own lands were also supplied in addition to things like cement, cement blocks, sand. Similarly, educational authorities have found new schools for children in those families,” Major General Rajapaksa added.
Of them, 6492 people of 2150 families were accommodated in the Trincomalee district under 22 Division. Another 2439 people, belonging to 875 families found their new dwelling places in the Batticaloa district as per their choice. 23 Division troops after attending to their basic needs transported them to their new residential places. A total of 593 people in the meantime selected Ampara District as their new dwelling area after identification of their relatives in different villages in the district.
Army troops after providing transport to their destinations, with a view to ensuring their security have taken steps to inform local Police stations and state administrative authorities of their return to respective places of residence.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
