Free rides for IDPs

Lakshmi DE SILVA

IDPs given free movement from December 1 have 15 buses provided by the International Organisation for Migration to travel daily from Chettikulam to Vavuniya. Each of the 15 buses ply three trips up and down daily from yesterday. IDPs are not charged for their trips, a senior official of the District Secretariat said.

He said the IDPs were very happy to leave the camps but most come back to welfare villages. The movements of the IDPs were mainly in the same district for shopping, meeting friends or relatives.A few among had gone to Jaffna or Colombo.

Meanwhile On December 1, around 9,143 IDPs went out of the welfare villages in the morning but 5,020 of them returned. On Wednesday, 6,186 left in the morning and 50 percent of them returned the same day.

Yesterday by midday around 5,000 had left and most were expected to return since there was more accommodation in the villages, the senior official said.

There are only 110,000 IDPs now remaining in the welfare villages. About 5,000 would be resettled in Pooneryn and Vavuniya North during the next two days. The Presidential Task Force on rehabilitation and resettlement had built a new bus stand at Thekkawatte, Vavuniya at a cost of Rs. 60 million with all facilities for passengers travelling to Jaffna or Colombo, Vavuniya District Secretary P.S.M.Charles said.