Uthuru Vasanthaya, a trust building exercise

People’s response encouraging:

Lakshmi DE SILVA

The Uthuru Vasanthaya rebuilding and rehabilitation program of the North was a trust building exercise that had to go a long way but the response from the people in the North was encouraging District Secretary Jaffna K. Ganesh told the Daily News yesterday.

Senior Presidential Advisor and Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa who is also the Chairman of the Uthuru Vasanthaya was in Jaffna yesterday to review the progress of the program and to remedy any shortcomings, official sources said.

Transportation, education, road development and other infrastructure development work that had started under the Vadikkal Vasantham or Northern Spring had brought confidence to people in Jaffna and it had started to benefit Sri Lankans in the North and South and other parts of the country as well, senior official said.

District Secretary K. Ganesh said four new buses were added to the SLTB fleet in Jaffna and 20 other buses repaired and added to Jaffna’s fleet while another five buses were plying from Jaffna to Colombo at a very nominal fare of Rs. 325 per passenger. The trips to Colombo and back with a change over at Medawachchiya had brought relief to the people of the North. An office staff bus from Jaffna to Point Pedro was started yesterday morning and another staff bus service from Kodikamam to Jaffna too would begin next week.

Tenders have been called to repair the damaged school buildings with an allocation of Rs. 100 million by the Education Department of Jaffna while the Jaffna Provincial Road Development Department had already repaired 11 roads at a cost of Rs. 43 million.

The University of Jaffna too would be refurbished with an allocation of Rs. 43 million, he said.

The Government was taking all efforts to resettle the IDPs in their native places even before the scheduled 180 days and was trying to resettle them in batches to start their livelihoods specially in areas where the de-mining process was over.

Officials were trying to settle the farmers in the vicinity of the Giant’s tank and Ahathimurippu tank areas where there were not much land mines so that they could start the Maha season crops when the rainy season begins, another official said.

Therefore, measures taken by the authorities to seal at one point and bring them to Colombo without obstruction would benefit the people at the other end while returning they also could bring ice to Jaffna from Anuradhapura so that both parties would benefit, he said.