Resettlement Authority established

COLOMBO: The Resettlement Authority was inaugurated by Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Rishad Bathiudeen to assist all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to resettle in their original homes and provide Water, Sanitation and Temporary Housing and thereafter, Livelihood Assistance and Permanent Housing, states a press release issued by the Resettlement Ministry.

After April 7, 2006 over 300,000 persons, in addition to the conflict affected IDPs displaced earlier, have been recently displaced from places of origin.

Almost all the IDPs from Vakarai numbering about 4,500 families have now been resettled and are satisfied that they are resettled in their original places of origin.

The Resettlement Authority is a brainchild of President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Resettlement Authority is being established under the Act of Parliament No. 9 of 2007.

The Authority will have its own Fund obtained from monies voted by Parliament, Loans, Donations, Gifts or Grants received by the Authority from any source from within or outside Sri Lanka, provided such sums shall be accounted through the normal Budgetary process.

There will be five Departments namely Resettlement, Infrastructure, Finance, Administration and Planning. All these will be separate Units for different functions and will have separate Sub-Units.