Resettlement under Uthuru Vasanthaya:
Resettlement accelerates
Lakshmi de Silva
The Presidential Special Task Force on Rehabilitation and
Resettlement is taking measures under the Uthuru Vasanthaya program to
resettle another 45,000 IDPs in Mannar and Jaffna districts as soon as
possible, Resettlement and Diasaster Relief Secretary A.L.M. Haldeen
told the Daily News yesterday.
He said the IDPs in 22 locations were given all facilities they need
and they were better off than most people in the country. Their health
and sanitation facilities were also kept at a high level with French and
Indian doctors in addition to local doctors attending to their
healthcare. There were sufficient number of ambulances to take patients
when the need arose to the Chettikulam or Vavuniya hospitals for
treatment.
Resettlement
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First batch -
Aug 5
Second batch - Aug 27
Third batch - Sept 11
|
Other facilities like food, water, electricity and sanitation were
provided free of charge while post offices, banks, cooperative shops,
telecommunication centres and education were also provided for their
children by the Government, he said.
Already 8,000 senior citizens have been sent to their relatives and
Hindu Maha Sabha had taken care of 117 families of Hindu priests; six
Christian priests were handed over to the Archbishop of Colombo, he
said.
Another 1,036 orphans were sent to orphanages in Vavuniya and Mannar
and around 200 orphaned children were to get the order from the District
Judge to be sent to approved orphanages. The Resettlement and Disaster
Relief Ministry was also making arrangements to put up a SOS village to
help the children in the Manik Farm IDP village, the Secretary said.
The Government had prepared a special program to face the rainy
season and improved the toilet facilities and sufficient waste and
sewerage disposal methods and clearing roads to make them passable
during the rainy season. |