Vakarai resettlement fast tracked

VAKARAI: A special Government delegation led by Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa who visited Vakarai on Saturday fast tracked the resettlement of the displaced civilians by expediting the restoration of the infrastructure facilities there.

The special Government delegation consisting of Ministry Secretaries, Security Forces and Police officers held a discussion at the Vakarai Divisional Secretariat to explore ways of speeding up the resettlement process.

Important decisions were taken to accelerate the restoration of transport, health, education, roads, electricity and other infrastructure facilities and speed up the whole process during this meeting.

Accordingly, it has been decided to complete the process of resettling 15,289 persons belonging to 3,900 displaced families from 11 Grama Sevaka Divisions in Vakarai by March 31.

The process of resettling people will be completed in three stages. Around 1,399 people belonging to 416 families have already been resettled there.

More than 5,000 displaced persons have already been issued with new identity cards prior to their resettlement in the villages.

Fifty per cent of repairs to dilapidated main roads have been completed and a decision taken to speed up the process of repairing other road networks.

Five new buses will be sent to the Vakarai depot within the next week to strengthen the bus fleet at Vakarai depot to 10.

A decision was also taken to hold mobile medical clinics to cater to persons being resettled in these areas. Health facilities in the Vakarai hospital too have already been established to provide medical supplies, ambulances and doctors.

Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa also directed the authorities to repair schools damaged in Vakarai and provide desks, chairs, uniforms and text books to students within the next two weeks.

Electricity supply too has been restored to the area. Electricity will be supplied to Government offices at the initial stage and then to houses once the people are resettled.

The necessity to compile a data base on the displaced persons and to update and maintain those data was also emphasised during this meeting.