President Rajapaksa wants IDPs resettled by year end

Hemanthi GURUGE

Resettlement Minister Gunaratne Weerakoon, vowed that all IDPs living in relief villages would be resettled before the end of this year.

The Minister also said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, had instructed to expedite and complete the resettlement process before the end of this year.

All IDPs who are living in Kadirgamar and Ananda Coomaraswamy relief villages in Vavuniya, will go back to their original homes. He made these comments during a visit to the IDP camps in Vavuniya.

So far 243,787 people have been resettled by the Ministry in their original places. At least 7,156 IDPs were living in Kadirgamar relief village and 9,132 IDPs were living in Ananda Coomaraswamy relief village. The government would provide all necessary facilities to the resettled people, the Minister said.

The process had so far been slow due to the clearing of land mines and it was necessary that their respective areas were cleared fully before the resettlement process was to be completed.