{"id":57215,"date":"2016-08-01T19:52:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T01:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57215"},"modified":"2016-08-01T12:17:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T19:17:36","slug":"what-the-hell-this-government-is-doing-to-the-kandyan-peasants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/01\/what-the-hell-this-government-is-doing-to-the-kandyan-peasants\/","title":{"rendered":"What the hell this Government is doing to the Kandyan Peasants?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sudath Gunasekara 1.8.2016<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Dear patriots,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Please see the following news item in the HINDU today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Last year\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

For Estate Tamils, South Indian indentured labour brought by the British to work on their plantations on native lands taken by force<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 A separate Ministry for Hill country Village and Infrastructure Development and a 10 year special development Project with UNDP funds, \u00a0obtained as loans <\/strong><\/p>\n

2 10 perches given for every family (this will be 10 perches for every Tamil very soon)<\/p>\n

3 Three separate Ministries for estate sector Tamils<\/strong><\/p>\n

4 Now another<\/strong> Hill Country New Villages Development Authority, with strong institutional mechanism\u201d to\u00a0carry out the functions of planning and coordination.<\/p>\n

A few days ago, the Cabinet gave its nod for getting a bill<\/p>\n

Now look at how this Government has treated the Kandyan peasants who fought and died against the invaders to protect their motherland for posterity<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Not an inch of over 600 000 of their land robbed by the invader British was returned to the up to date<\/p>\n

2 No Ministry, no Minister or a programme of development or even a C grade Department for 6 million Kandyan Peasants living in 16 Districts. Even the toothless department that was there for 4 decades was closed down<\/p>\n

3 Kandyan areas Development Authority proposed in 1951 to rehabilitate the natives who lost their ancestral land and all what they had lost was never established<\/strong> \u00a0up to date.<\/p>\n

4 The toothless \u00a0Kandyan Peasantry Commissioners Department that was crawling on its four for 40 years without any notable rehabilitation or development of these areas was also finally closed down on Jan 1 2015<\/p>\n

5 All those people who lost their lands for Kotmale and Victoria Projects numbering thousands were chased out to the downstream Mahaweli area like system C and not a single family was given an inch of land from the hill country tea lands while all those Tamil labourers who were victims of landslide etc were given lands on the tea lands<\/p>\n

6 Almost all natives who lost their land during the colonial times to the invaders and who are still living in secluded valley bottoms in abject poverty, san roads, drinking water, water for their paddy fields, schools, health facilities, employment and minimum facilities to sell their paltry produce are completely forgotten<\/strong><\/p>\n

7 Why is that not a single Sinhala politician who are supposed to represent them either in Parliament, Provincial Councils or Pradesiya Sabhas speak a single word on the plight of these hapless human beings<\/strong><\/p>\n

8 Is there a single country in the whole world where politicians betray their own country, their own people and their own heritage like this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

9 Do they know that their names will go down in history as shameless traitors who betrayed their own country their own people and their millennia old heritage for a vote, to get power and remain in power?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I send a letter under registered cover to the President on 20th<\/sup> of Dec 2015 on behalf of eight organizations requesting him to stay the above mentioned programs on the estates until justice is first done to the sons of the soil, as proposed by the Kandyan Peasantry Commission1951. I also requested an appointment from him to discuss this all important national issue that directly affects the lives of Sinhala peasants in three Provinces. I note with much concern and sadness to say that I haven\u2019t got even an acknowledge ment up to date. (this article was published in Rivira 31st<\/sup>\u00a0 (yesterday).<\/strong><\/p>\n

This also clearly shows the duplicity of this Yahapalanaya Government and the open discrimination it displays against the Kandyan peasants, Sinhala people living in three Provinces.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The HINDU<\/p>\n

INTERNATIONAL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

COLOMBO,\u00a0July 30, 2016<\/p>\n

Updated: July 30, 2016 20:43 IST<\/p>\n

New body for hill country Tamils<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n