More food for displaced

Rasika SOMARATHNA

In accordance with a directive by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, authorities have decided to send bigger shipments of food to assist the displaced being held hostage by the LTTE, in the remaining uncleared pockets in Mullaitivu.

Sea freighter Win Tang was used to deliver 500 MT of essential food to Puttumattalan, Mullaitivu yesterday, which is considered as the biggest single shipment dispatched to the uncleared areas to date.

Essential Services Commissioner General S.B. Divarathna denied certain media reports, which claimed that the internally displaced persons were on the verge of starvation.

He said authorities had always maintained a steady supply of food to the area, even under extreme circumstances.

He said authorities earlier had some difficulty in finding big ships to transport food and as such had used several small vessels to carry shipments to the area by sea. He was of the view that a portion of the food delivered, was being plundered by the LTTE to feed their own cadres.

At a recent media briefing Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe noted that one third of the IDP figure (uncleared areas) provided by the Government Agents have, in many instances, been found to be duplicates.

He claimed that after liberating the area authorities had found that as many as 20,000 families had being double-counted in the Kilinochchi district alone.

The food and medicine needed for IDPs, sheltered in the No Fire Zone, would be delivered un-interrupted, Divarathne added.

State Health Authorities also took steps to deliver a large consignment of medical supplies, including equipment and drugs aboard the ‘Green Ocean’ vessel to Puttumattalan last Wednesday.