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ශ්‍රී ලංකා යුද්ධ හමුදාව

ජාතියේ ආරක්ෂකයා

Those Defended the Land Finally Become Land Recipients under MoD 'Api Wenuwen Api' Project

Fifty seven eastern province-based War Heroes who defended the territorial integrity of this island-nation at the expense of their precious lives were rewarded with separate land plots of  20 perch each under the  "Api Wenuwen Api" project of the Seva Vanitha Branch at Ministry of Defence (MoD) during a special ceremony, held Saturday (7) morning at the venue at Welikanda.

Mrs Ioma Rajapakse, Chairperson, Seva Vanitha Branch at Ministry of Defence graced the occasion as the Chief Guest in the company of Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander of the Army and Mrs Manjulika Jayasuriya, President, Seva Vanitha  Army Branch. The ceremony, organized by the SFHQ-E was also attended by a large gathering of next of kin of War Heroes, MoD officials, Senior Army officers and Major General Lal Perera, Commander, SFHQ-E.

The 15-acre land at Aselapura village, about 7 km away from the SFHQ-E premises was thus blocked out and distributed among 57 War Heroes Saturday morning during the brief ceremony that saw memories of fallen War Heroes were recalled and revered at first after traditional oil-lamp lighting was over.

During the ceremony, Mrs Rajapakse presented the majority of those  land deeds to those War Heroes, including 4 disable War Heroes and two woman soldiers, all of them residing in the East. One more block was gifted to the spouse of a fallen War Hero. Lt Gen Jayasuriya, Commander of the Army followed suit and gave away the rest of the deeds, adding significance to the occasion.

The project, being one of the biggest land allotments ever to have been implemented for War Heroes by the MoD so far, was allocated by the Mahaweli Authority, following a request made by the Army. The premises, equipped with pipe-borne water, three phase electricity, children's park, preschool and other infrastructure, is situated close to a government school, a peripheral hospital and a main bus stand that operates bus services directly to Matara and Colombo on a daily basis.

Those Army recipients, resident in the east have had no property at all, though they have lived in the East for generations and contributed to the defence of the country. The SFHQ-E after careful scrutiny selected those recipients who do not possess an inch of land to call theirs in the area out of several hundreds of applicants.