Over 59,000 families resettled in past months

Eight welfare centres established in Jaffna:

Uditha KUMARASINGHE and Irangika RANGE

Re-settlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Rishad Bathiudeen told Parliament yesterday the Government has re-settled 59,608 displaced families in Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Mannar, Ampara and Jaffna Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions during the past few months.

According to figures, 35, 766 families have been re-settled in Batticaloa DS division while 22,068 families have been re-settled in Trincomalee DS division. The Government has re-settled 669 families in Mannar, 51 families in Ampara and 1,054 families in Jaffna DS divisions.

The Minister said the number of persons displaced in 2009 is 288,938. Of these total number of displaced persons, 224,394 persons have been sheltered in six Relief Villages set-up in the Vavuniya district.

This includes 19,690 persons in the Kadiragamar Relief Village, 47,202 persons in Ananda Kumarswamy Relief Village (Zone 01), 65,210 persons in Pon Ramanadan Relief Village (Zone 02), 44, 496 persons in the Arunachalam Relief Village (Zone 03), 42,316 persons in Relief Village (Zone 04) and 5,480 persons in Relief Village (Zone 05).

Meanwhile, 15,812 persons are in seven welfare centres established in Vavuniya DS division and 21,665 persons are sheltered in seven welfare centres set up in Vengala Chettikulam DS division.

Eight welfare centres established in the Jaffna DS division have given accommodation to 10,853 persons while two welfare centres set up in the Trincomalee DS division have given accommodation to 6,842 persons. In addition, 493 persons are in the welfare centre established in the Mannar district.

The Minister said the Government has taken all possible measures to provide the basic needs and other infrastructure facilities to the families resettled in each district.

The Government has formulated an intensive program of resettlement to conduct this resettlement process in a more efficient manner. The Government has also obtained the support of the country’s people in this regard. The Minister was responding to a question raised by the JVP MP Y.M. Navaratne Banda.