Lands for thousand families:

New lands for flood victims: first phase commences:

Nimal Wijesinghe- Anuradhapura Additional District group correspondent

Under the first phase of evacuating families living close to Malwathu oya from Nachchaduwa to Thantirimale, nearly 1,000 families in Nuwaragam palatha (central) and Nuwaragam palatha (east) are allocated land for housing in Katukeliyawa area close to the Anuradhapura township.

North Central Chief Minister Ranjith Samarakoon told the Daily News that President Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed him to take prompt action to resettle those who are intermittently caught in floods, resulting from Malwathu oya overflowing, in suitable lands out of flood disaster. "We intend to support these families to construct houses and they will not be allowed to occupy the former low lying areas as it had been the practice so far. The lands they are leaving will remain only as farmlands," the chief minister said.

Meanwhile, a survey is initiated by the Divisional Secretaries in the Anuradhapura district to ascertain the number of families occupying the reservations and unsafe lands along the banks of Kala oya, Yan oya and the main feeder canals of major irrigation reservoirs in the district.

These families have been facing the flood threat annually and they shall be resettled in nearby protected lands. It is believed that once the Yan oya reservoir and Pahala Malwathu oya reservoir schemes are complete, the flood situation would be minimized permanently.