Govt acts to bring relief to Vakarai

COLOMBO: The Government is taking urgent measures to ease the food situation in Vakarai. Steps have already been taken to allow at least 15 Non Governmental Organisations to carrying out relief work in the East to assist in the food relief effort at Vakarai, sources said yesterday.

Social workers in Vakarai say the problem of food shortages there has been caused due to the hostile acts of the LTTE, which disrupted the flow of goods; and also the movement of a large number of persons from within the LTTE controlled areas into Government held areas.

The Government is able to organise the proper movement of goods to the people of Vakarai, and carry out distribution with its own resources and those of NGOs and other voluntary organisations, sources said.

The Commissioner General of Essential Services is taking special action to ease the shortages of essential supplies at Vakarai and it is expected that the people there will have adequate supplies within the next week, once the distribution mechanism is in place, the sources added.

With regard to Jaffna, the Government is regularly monitoring the situation on the supply of essentials to the peninsula, and a steady improvement is expected.

Technical problems in unloading of goods at the Kankasanthurai harbour have now been resolved.

Action is being taken to expedite the turn around of vessels from Trincomalee and Colombo that carry goods to Jaffna.

Urgent measures are being taken to obtain more vessels for this work. Conditions in Jaffna are expected to further improve as the fuel situation in the peninsula has now been stabilised, sources said.

Trade sources said if the LTTE extends an assurance of safe supply of goods to the Jaffna peninsula, there could be a rapid improvement in the supplies.

Sources pointed out that the Acting Judge at the Point Pedro District Court Nadarajah Thangarajah who conducted the inquest on the death of M. Chandrapala had clearly stated that "not to connect this death to starvation." "Please do not try to connect this death to the shortage of food in Jaffna.

It is not relevant, because this person was almost like an orphan without a home and living on day-to-day earning doing odd jobs," the Acting Judge had said.