Tense situation in Ariyampati under control

Batticaloa was tense yesterday when residents of Ariyampati tried to unearth tsunami relief from the Ariyampati Divisional Secretariat office premises claiming that the officials had allegedly kept the relief items in their custody without distribution.

The crowd had attacked several vehicles belonging to the Divisional Secretariat and had blocked the road, Police said. Later with the intervention of the Special Task Force and Police the situation was brought under control.

Acting on a public complaint, Police found dry food rations including rice, dhal, dry fish buried in the Secretariat building premises.

Divisional Secretary K. Sivanathan had told Police that the food items were buried with the approval of the Public Health Inspector as the food items were found to be unfit for human consumption.

However, residents claimed that the items were fit for consumption as the expiry date is in 2008. On some food items especially sugar, the expiry date was not mentioned, they said.

Police are conducting further investigations.