By Desamanya Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Kandy.

Beside these 14,000 houses on the hills, India has already implemented a 60,000-housing scheme for Tamils in Sri Lanka as follows, for which the Sri Lankan government has already signed an MOU with the Indian government the conditions of which are not known to the general public of this country.

India builds 60,000 houses in Sri Lanka

            In June 2010, the Government of India announced that it would construct 50,000 houses in Sri Lanka at an outlay of 33 billion LKR. A Pilot Project involving the construction of 1,000 houses was launched in November 2010 and was completed in July 2012. An MOU with the Government of Sri Lanka on the modalities of implementation of the remaining 49,000 houses under the Project was signed on 17 January 2012.

•              Pilot Phase: The government of India entrusted an agency to construct 1,000 houses for beneficiaries in the Northern Province. The project was completed in July 2012.

•              Second Phase: The second phase launched on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2 October 2012, which envisaged the construction of 45,000 houses in the Northern and Eastern Provinces was completed in December 2018.

•              An innovative owner-driven model was adopted to implement the second phase, wherein the Government of India arranged technical support and financial assistance for the owner-beneficiaries to undertake the construction/repair of their houses themselves.

•              Financial assistance of LKR 550,000 per beneficiary (LKR 250,000 in case of repair cases) was released in stages and transferred directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries by the High Commission of India. (Where?)

•              Third Phase: The third phase of the Indian Housing Project involves the construction of 4,000 houses for estate workers in the Central and Uva Provinces through an innovative community-driven approach. Letter of Exchange with the Government of Sri Lanka for this phase was signed in April 2016 and work started in October 2016.

•              In the third phase considering the difficulties in the terrain and accessibility of materials and other logistics LKR 950,000 is disbursed per beneficiary.

•              As on date close to 2300 houses are complete in the third phase and the construction of the remaining houses is currently underway.

•              Fourth Phase: During his visit to Sri Lanka on 12 May 2017, Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi announced an additional 10,000 houses for the estate workers, and the agreement was formalized in August 2018. This entails an additional commitment of LKR 11 billion. Preparatory work for these additional houses is currently underway and the construction of these houses is expected to start soon. This makes the total number of houses being built in the plantation areas 14,000.

•              As of 31 December 2019, more than a total of LKR 31 billion has been?

My Comments on this serious and important news item.

 I welcome the construction of such a large number of houses for any citizen of this country by any government.  But I don’t agree with this selective preference given only to Tamils of this country as it is bound to create a special kind of attachment and allegiance to India of a section of citizens of a particular ethnic group, that is Tamils, an imminent threat to the independence and sovereignty of this country.

The only way to overcome this imminent disaster.

First of all, we must thank the NBOR for releasing this important information for the information of the general public so that firstly, there will be increased public awareness and secondly, they will take serious notice of this imminent danger and open their eyes to take precautionary action and thirdly, they will corporate with the authorities to mitigate these disasters first, in their own interest and second, in the broader interest of the country.

If immediate action is not taken to arrest this catastrophe, before long, the entire 13,000 square kilometers of land spread over in Badulla, Nuwara-Eliya, Kandy, Matale, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, and Hambantota- comprising 1/5th of the area of this Island as they have estimated, will be converted to an area unsuitable for human settlements. Considering the ever-increasing population with the land extent remaining constant, the Sri Lankan society will be faced with a major problem of finding sufficient space for people, increasing in millions annually to live in the short run.

Therefore, the crying need firstly, to take short-term measures to arrest this calamity. Secondly, to find out the causes that have brought about this situation and finally to immediately find a permanent workable solution to stop this manmade disaster.

The problems one can visualize in the long run can become far more serious and can even go beyond our imagination for the following reasons resulting in the total disappearance of the 2566-year-old Sinhala Buddhist civilization from the face of this earth as Tamils can go to India and Muslim to countries from where they have come. But where are we going? We have no place on this earth other than this tiny island. The causes for what we are experiencing today in these regions of this type of landslides are a direct legacy we have inherited from 103 years of British colonial devastations from done for 133 years from1815 to 1948 and the 1.2 million Indian labour they left behind when they left for their home. The actual problem at stake is much wider and deeper than the NBOR report has indicated. What we are facing today is the result of cumulative causes that have been in operation for a long time on the hillsides and are attributed to many factors other than those mentioned in para 3 of the above report. Among them the most important reason was the large-scale deforestation for Coffee and Tea on these hills, running into about 1.3 million acres of never touched before as they were reserved crown forests.

The onslaught on this forest began with the opening up of these lands for Coffee. The first commercial coffee plantation was started by George Bird, in Singhapitiya, Gampola in 1824. The same year, Edward Barnes, who became Governor of Ceylon in 1824, established another plantation in Gannoruwa in 1825 (now a part of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya). This was followed by Tea after the Coffee blight in 1869. The first tea plantation estate in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) was started in 1867 by Scotsman James Taylor in Loolekandura, in the Kandy district near Hanguranketha. Thereafter Tea cultivation spread all over the hill country in no time. This resulted in the deforestation of the entire hill country within a few years. With the expansion of the Tea industry nearly 1.3 million acres of prime jungle that remained as Thahanchi kele (protected forests) by Royal decree from the inception of Civilization in this country were removed to give way for Tea bushes sprawling all over the hill country.

 This large-scale deforestation, followed by setting fire to the forests, uprooting and stumping the felled trees, digging for planting tea and earth cutting for drains,  constructions of buildings, factories and thousands of line rooms for nearly 1.2 million indentured south Indian slave labour brought by the British to work on these newly opened up land and their discriminate cuttings and digging around the line rooms for cultivations followed by a massive network of roads and a Railway line across the country’s hilly terrain up to Badulla. These entire 1.3 million acres covered with the prime forest over the whole hill country that remained undisturbed for millennia got directly exposed to heavy rain and elements of weather got eroded and degraded and the streams dried up. The inner layers are unable to withstand this sudden weakening of the binding effect of the decaying root system and opening up of underground cleavages due to heavy exposure on the surface coupled with indiscriminate land use disturbing the underlying structural harmony of the whole hill country followed by heavy rain were the main causes of these earth slips  As the prime forest was removed the earth got dried up, streams dried up underground water deposits vanished fauna and flora disappeared. In fact, it is the aftermaths of all these destructions that we see as landslides and earth slips all over the hill country,

Now it reminds me of the famous Sinhala folk ‘tale of As if the man fallen from the tree was also attacked by the Bull” adding to all damages done by the white people to this Heartland of Mother Lanka for 133 years from 1815 to 1948,  today our own government elected by us has started to destroy it completely beyond recovery by aiding and abetting the Indian Government sponsored settlement and housing program followed by large scale building program that churn up the little physical stability left behind by the British on these hills by a massive housing and settlement building program including large scale infrastructure development projects with Indian and international funding all over the hill country with no regard whatsoever to the massive and irreversible damages already caused to the Physical stability of the Geographical Heartland of this country.

Way back in 199I, I declared this geographical area as HADABIMA of Sri Lanka since it functions as the Heart of the body of Sri Lanka. Thus, not only functionally but even analogically it resembles a heart when you turn the physiographic map of the central hill country 15 degrees clockwise with two outliers, the Rakwana hills on the right-hand side and the Dumbara hills on the left side with the central massif at the center resembling heart flanked by two lungs on either side. The peculiar radial drainage pattern of 103 rivers has their sources on these hills that flow in all directions providing the water to sustain all the water to keep the entire life system in the country guaranteeing the survival of the civilization of this Island nation.

Thus, its physical stability determines and dictates the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island nation. Therefore, the need to protect its physical stability by protecting its forest cover, the land, and the river system without disturbing its critical physical stability is the main and the only watershed that decides the survival of life on this Island. When the heart stops the man dies. Similarly, the day physical stability of the central hills is not there the curtain will fall on the entire life system and the civilization of this Island. It is in this perspective one has to look at the need to protect the physical stability of these central hills.

Removing the forest cover on these hills will first make these rivers dry. All 103 main rivers in this Island have their sources on these hills. Continuous landslides and deforestation followed by land degradation and bad land use practices will soon lead to the drying up of all these rivers. Since these rivers form the life arteries that provide the water needed for the entire life system in the down-streams area in the lowland surrounding the central hill country, their drying up will lead to the extinction of life in the Island and inevitably thereafter human civilization in the country will vanish in the long run, in the lowlands around the entire Island together with the hill country.

The only way to avoid this disaster is the protect of the physical stability of the central highlands, the Geographical heartland, and the HADABIMA” of Sri Lanka just like you protect your own heart. Because as much as you die if your heart stops, the same way Sri Lanka’s entire life system and civilization will also come to an end if the physical stability of the central highlands is lost.

The first step in this mission is to declare all land above 5000 ft as strictly protected and banned area for any human intervention. Second to restore its original position and maintain it regularly.

Unfortunately, none of the governments that came to power after the so-called Independence has taken any step to arrest this devastation done to this country by the British for 133 years and to restore the status quo, that was there before 1815 as a heritage coming down from the inception of history. Instead, they also have continued to accelerate the destruction done by the invaders by cruelly stabbing the heart of the nation to death, for narrow political gains.

Even the Kandyan Peasantry Commission set up in 1949 did not look at this critical problem. I am asking the present-day government as to why it keeps deaf, blind, and dumb. Why don’t you understand the gravity of this disaster? Why can’t the NBRO who impose strict conditions on innocent native villagers imposing all unnecessary conditions when they make an application to put up a wattle and doab hut on their ancestral land, take action against this wanton national crime committed by the government under pressure from the Indian government by constructing 60,000 new houses on hill slope even over 60 degrees slope on land going up to almost 8000 ft MSL. In my opinion everybody including the Government and all government department are responsible for this crime of erasing a great nation in the world from the surface of this earth by keeping deaf, dumb and blind on this issue just to woo the votes of a band of Indian cooly labour left behind by the British high and dry, who have no love for this country.

As none of the post-independent government or any responsible citizen had opened their eyes on this subject and done their duty by a great nation who had defended and protected their motherland for 443 years (1505-1948) by paying with their lives. Therefore, I am making the following proposal on their behalf to arrest this death march and restore normalcy in the Central Hill country restoring its physical stability for the Sinhala nation to protect this heritage that comes down from the sacrifices of their brave forefathers.

To avoid this imminent disaster, I propose to the government that it should take the following steps

1 Declare all forests above 5000 ft above MSL as strictly reserved heritage forests of the country, as it had been done throughout history leaving Nuwara Eliya Bandarawela, Hakgala Botanical Garden, Ambewela farm, and the Horton Plain as tourist attractions. The road network all over the hill country must be maintained for tourist’ purposes.

2. Evacuate all settlements in the region between 3500 ft and 5000 ft msl and settle them at a lower contour that is between 1000-3500 leaving only the tea factories and allied offices to remain within the zone 3500 -5000. These settlements also will provide the labour required for the tea plantations between 3500-5000 ft msl.

The large-scale tea plantations between 3500-5000 should be managed by JEDB and SLPC, USAWASAMA, or big native private Companies. None should be given to foreigners.

3. Relocate all displaced plantation workers, who are willing to abide by the laws of the land in the area between 1000-35000 ft lands on 2 ½ acre farm lots together with landless Kandyan peasants in the adjoining villages. Here priority should be given to landless Kandyan Peasants, as they were the original owners of these lands. These settlements should be developed as mixed farm lots of the HADABIMMA model giving rise to a unique settlement model. Land allocation should be done by drawing lots to avoid discrimination. That will also help social integration between the native Sinhalese and estate Tamil labour. These farm lots will be HADABIMA model mixed farms with animal husbandry and these villages right around the hill country will also provide the labour for the 3500-6000 plantations in the neighboring estates. This settlement belt right around the central hills will develop a unique settlement model with a Kandyan forestry garden type adapted to suit the present-day socio-economic needs.

The present estate labour should cease calling themselves Naam 200 and they are Indiana Tamils.  They all should accept the historical fact that this is the land of the Sinhala nation as it has been for the past 2600 years. They also accepted the conditions in the Nehru-Kotalawala Pact of 1953 and ceased to be called Indian Tamils any longer. No Naam 200. No Malahayaha as they do now. Those who insist they want to retain this nomenclature and the Indian identity should go back to India. If they want to be identified in those terms then they should get repatriated as we cannot have Indian citizens within our territory.   But if they want to, they can observe their religion and customs in private. Those who want to integrate they can do that.  Those who refuse should go back to India or ask their colonial masters to provide land and citizenship in the UK. In the event they refuse to fall in line, with this naturalization, have no alternative but to go back either to India or the other legitimate motherland Britain as the UK is legally bound to take them back as they were British citizens at the time of their leaving this country in 1948.

Herewith I propose a pragmatic action plan to see an end to all these problems mentioned in this note, once and for all,

This Action plan if implemented will find a permanent solution for the following national problems.

1 First and foremost of them, restoring the physical stability of the HADABIMA (The central hill country) of Sri Lanka will guarantee the survival of the entire life system in this country and will protect the continuity of the civilization of this country that had been there from the dawn of history until the Sun and the Moon shall last.

2 It will solve the problem of landlessness among the Kandyan peasants, highlighted by the KPC Report 1951 but not touched up to date.

3. Thereby, partly rectify the historical injustices inflicted upon the Kandyan Sinhala patriots, the sons of the soil, whose ancestors were annihilated in tens of thousands in battle and hunger in 1817-1818 Uva Rebellion and 1848 Matale rebellions/Freedom struggles against the British colonial invaders, under orders of Brownrigg and Torrington the white murderers.

4 Solve the landlessness, unemployment problems, and other socio-economic problems of the Estate labour in the present plantation sector by converting them to respectable full native citizen status of this country.

5. It will also stop the exploitation of the estate labour by the pseudo-Indian labour leaders within the estate as feudal lords did in medieval Europe.

6. This will end the 224-year-old (1799-2023) ethnic animosity created between the native Sinhalese and these Malabar Tamils, first,  planted by the  Cleghorn report 1799 and second, by the Wesleyan Methodist Mission that met in Jan 1819 in Galle whose most important resolution, as they said was the division of Ceylon into two districts, to be designated as the Sinhalese and Tamil districts”   to destroy the native Sinhalese. They also imported Malabar Tamils, using their divide and rule policy and later used by the British as sepoys in their struggles against the native Sinhalese in the freedom Struggles of 1817-1818 Uva Wellassa and the 1848 Matale rebellion and thereafter exploited them to enrich the British and Indian Banks up to date by the British by engaging these  as cheap labour working under trying conditions.

And since the British left in1948, leaving the Indian labour  high and dry as a band of stateless destitute exploited by the feudal minded Estate Tamil labour leaders and communal Tamil politicians led by Thondaman and his heirs up to date and also by selfish native Sinhala political leaders  who woo them for their vote at every election,  (even though they never get it) and finally, using them as fodder by Indian Mandarins and politicians, partly in pursuance of their expansionist agenda and partly, to meet domestic politics exigencies of winning the 39 seats in Tamilnadu.

7.The implementation of this plan will also see the end of Tamil communal politics in the central hill country of this country.

8 With the completion of this humanitarian settlement program Sri Lanka will be relieved once and for all of the presence of the headache of an anti-Sinhala anti-Buddhist pro-Indian enclave consisting of 1.2 million band of Malabar Tamils in the Heartland of this Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom that was there for the last 2600 years and instead we will be blessed with a band of naturalized native citizens who love this as their own motherland, even better than the original Sinhalese just like the naturalized and integrated south Indians who came to this country in the medieval times, presently living in the South Western quarter of the country.

With the completion of this project, all the following institutions should be closed down.

1. Ministry of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development

2. The Ministry of State Infrastructure a development

3 New Villages Development Authority for Plantation Region

and all other agencies with direct foreign intervention and funds to this sector based on ethnicity

 The practice of creating separate ministries and Institutions and appointing these plantation sector Tamil politicians to high posts,  such as Ministers and Governors, just to woo the estate sector Tamil votes should be stopped forthwith.

This is the type of houses built with Indian assistance on the central hills indiscriminately without any regard for the physical stability of the Central hill contrast time.

It is said that already 60,000 houses have been built and another 40 000 are to be built very soon.

Indian built Housing schemes in other parts of the country outside the hill country.