Over 95,000 resettled in East

Only 37,000 more IDPs to be resettled:

Nadira Gunatilleke and Uditha Kumarasinghe

COLOMBO: The Government has already resettled over 95,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) affected by the recent fighting in the East.

There are only 37,000 more persons to be resettled and the Government has planned to complete resettling soon, Information and Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Addressing a special press briefing at the Government Information Department Auditorium yesterday, Yapa said many speak about IDPs as a major issue. “Certain institutions try to add the number of IDPs chased away by the LTTE a decade ago.

“The IDPs chased away by the LTTE a decade ago are now living in areas such as Puttalam and Batticaloa and they are not included in the IDP numbers affected by the recent events.

“Those IDPs are waiting to return to their original places after the armed forces clear the whole country,” the Minister said.

There were 23,948 IDPs in Trincomalee and 5,425 of them have already been resettled. Only 18,523 are left to be resettled shortly. In Batticaloa district, there were 93,638 IDPs and 74,939 have already been resettled. Only 18,000 remain to be resettled.

There were 15,289 IDPs in Vakarai and 14,791 have already been resettled. Only 498 have to be resettled. the Trincomalee harbour destroyed by the Tsunami disaster is completely rehabilitated and operations will commence on July 31. The UNDP assisted the rehabilitation.

“The good work carried out by Resettlement Ministry and Minister Rishad Badudeen should be highly commended in this regard,” the Minister added.

Yapa pointed out that arrangements have been made to develop every part cleared by the Armed Forces under the ‘Eastern Resurgence’ programme.