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by Florence Wickramage

In future private land will be acquired for public purposes only where it is absolutely necessary and such acquisitions will conform to the exact extents needed. Action will also be taken to mitigate effects of land acquisition on the people affected, Minister of Lands Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said at the BMICH last week.

The Minister was speaking at the workshop on "Capacity Building for the Implementation of the National Involuntary Resettlement Policy", jointly organised by the Minister of Lands and Environment and Natural Resources and the Central Environmental Authority.

The National Involuntary Resettlement Policy has been accepted by the Government in principle. Therefore the policy has to be developed further to involve those affected by land acquisition, since the government believes that economic development to the detriment of a section of the community was not proper development, Dr. Senaratne said.

Acquisition of land by the government in the nineteenth and early twentieth century was under the Wasteland Ordinance and Crown Land Encroachment Ordinance which provided blanket coverage. This had brought vast scale misery to the people thus displaced.

The Minister emphasised that it was necessary to establish and develop a unit with required capacity and capability to serve the different agencies that have and will have to deal with resettlement activity to ensure justice and fair play specially to those residents who are forced to sacrifice their lands and livelihoods for development.

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Rukman Senanayake, Director South Asia Infrastructure Division, ADB, Tadashi Kondo, International Resettlement Specialist Sam Pillai, Secretary Ministry of Lands W.K.K. Kumarasiri and Secretary Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Thosapala Hewage also addressed the workshop.

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