Deduru Oya displaced to receive speedy compensation

President to arrange lawyer to defend agitators:

Rohan Mathes

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday directed officials to expedite the compensation to those displaced by the Deduru Oya Reservoir project, while continuing the development work beneficial to the country.

President Rajapaksa issued these directions when he met representatives of those displaced by the project, and gave ear to their grievances at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.

The President directed the relevant officials to discuss the issues pertaining to the re-settlement and the compensation process with the displaced persons, and come to an agreement with them.

On request made by the families of those on bail, arrested for the agitation incident in the Deduru Oya region last month, the President consented to nominate a lawyer who could represent them, free of charge.

However, he said that those responsible for the damage of public property should be punished and therefore they themselves should bear the costs of damages.

He was of the view that the displaced families should be given a block of land free of charge and additionally paid a reasonable amount in cash. “The total amount should be paid at once and not in instalments”, the President said.

President Rajapaksa reiterated that despite the conflict in the North East, all development projects in the country would go ahead as planned. However, he said, “we should first have a country to do all this.

We must then protect it and also develop it. All developments will be in vain, if we do not inculcate moral and spiritual values among us, and maintain law and order in society”, he said.

The President observed that there had been a conceptual flaw in the re-settlement process where prior acceptance had not been obtained from the displaced, and their basic infrastructure facilities and utilities such as electricity, water, roads and schools too had not been provided before they were re-settled.

“We have not done this even in Vakarai. “I myself came to know of these issues only after the agitation. The people of the country too were not aware of them”, he added.

Ministers S. B. Nawinna, Chamal Rajapaksa, D. M. Dassanayake, T. B. Ekanayake, Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa, Additional Secretary to the President Gamini Senarath and others participated at this discussion.