{"id":97035,"date":"2019-12-30T00:34:55","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T06:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97035"},"modified":"2020-01-15T17:13:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T00:13:03","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-10c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/30\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-10c\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 10C"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Revised 15.1.20<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way of\nerasing the Eelam victory was for the state to take the blame for the all the\ndestruction caused, and promise to rebuild. After winning the Eelam War IV\nPresident Mahinda Rajapaksa went to Kilinochchi, spoke in Tamil and told the\npeople there that his government will rebuild all that was destroyed, and will\nstrive to provide everything they need.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media reported\nin 2013 that the government had set aside the colossal sum of USD 1350 million\nfor infrastructure development in Northern Province, railways and electricity,\nhighways, bridges, water supply and sanitation.     85% of the foreign   loans are spent on developing the north,\nsaid Basil Rajapaksa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmain emphasis was on roads and bridges. The government has spent 10 billion on development of\ninfrastructure in north to replace the damage done by the LTTE, reported the media in 2013.  In\nVavuniya all disconnected damaged and dilapidated highway and roads including\nrural road have been renovated and rehabilitated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11\nlarge bridges were completed. The A 9 highway, Batticaloa Trincomalee highway,\nVavuniya Horowopotana and Medawachchiya Mannar roads were improved. A bridge\nconnecting Sangupiddy in Kilinochchi <\/a> to\nKaraitivu in Jaffna District was built. Before this bridge the only land route\nto Jaffna was on A9 via Elephant Pass causeway. The bridge is part of the A32\nJaffna-Mannar highway<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damaged\nrailways were restored. 29 public and private institutions such as Bank of\nCeylon, NYSC, IDB, SLECC Kelani cables and Singer Sri Lanka were asked to help\nreconstruct the northern railway stations. Each took a railway station.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the war\nwas over Kilinochchi was developed.   The\nmedia announced in 2013 that over 8 million has been allocated to Kilinochchi.\nThis allocation was described as a \u2018staggering allocation, unprecedented at\ndistrict level.\u2019 Kilinochchi roads were improved.  Nearly 15,000 wells were cleaned or\nrenovated.  A substantial sum of money\nwas spent on restoring the health services that had been paralyzed. Major hospitals\nwere renovated and provided with additional facilities.  Tellippalai\nbase hospital was renovated to the cost of Rs 10 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngovernment said that 26,730 new houses were planned  for Kilinochchi. The\ngovernment will provide 18,699 of them.  Also,\nthe government would repair 4119 of the 6349 houses that need to be\nrepaired.  The balance will be done later.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foreign aid provided for Sri Lanka during\nthe Eelam war    was primarily, if not\nexclusively, for the north and east. This is well known. This continued after\nthe war was won. The ambassador for France visited Mannar and Jaffna and spoke\nto Tamils and Muslims. He said France was interested in the resettlement of\nTamils and Muslims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Australia provided the funds to the\nInternational Organization for Migration (IOM) to restore critical fishing\ninfrastructure in the Jaffna peninsula. The reconstructed anchorage will allow\nfull access to the sea at any time.  Japan\noffered to provide Rs 90 million for a project for livelihood assistance for\nthose returning to their homes in north and east.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotary International   carried out\nseveral projects in the north and east. Rotary helped\nimprove Trincomalee general hospital,  \nand Eravur base hospital. Rotary had given wells to Seenanvali and\nSanthosapuram in Muttur,  toilets for a\nGirls Home and Boys Home in Batticaloa,   \na  c<\/em>omputer centre to technical college\nVavuniya,   and conducted  preschool teacher training  in Jaffna and \nBatticaloa .  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in 2015,\nthe government changed and the Yahapalana government came in. The regime change\nof 2015 was largely due to the Tamil vote in the North. President Sirisena    won around 80% of the north and east votes,\nthough a survey showed that 33% of the people of that area had not even heard\nof Sirisena before. Yahapalana won on the block vote of Tamil and Muslim\nminorities.  They must be rewarded.\nTherefore Yahapalana government gave special attention to the Tamils   of the North.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I have\ngone to Jaffna 11 times in 22 months as President.  About 90% of the Tamils in Jaffna voted for\nme. We are building houses for them and giving them back their land,\u201d said\nPresident Maitripala Sirisena in 2016. \nThe war has destroyed the economy. So it will be a longer period but we\nhave given special concessions for investment in the North. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngovernment plans to develop about 15,000 km of road in the north and east and\nof which 700 km will be for Jaffna district said Lakshman Kiriella in 2016. \u2018He\nthanked the people of the north for voting for them.\u2019 3000 rainwater harvesting\ntanks for Jaffna district were approved at cost of Rs 300 million in 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many statements were made in 2017 regarding\nthe planned help for the north and east. Vision 2025 said the Government will implement a comprehensive District\nDevelopment Plan for each of the five districts in the Northern Province. National\nIntegration and Reconciliation Ministry   said it has initiated several\nreconciliation-focused economic empowerment and social infrastructure projects\nin the North and East at a cost of Rs. 679 million. The projects include\ndevelopment of anchorages, roads, water supply, irrigation, education\nimprovements and health and livelihood projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017 Samurdhi came to north east which did\nnot have it before. 68 primary health care facilities including OPD, MOH offices,\nwere set up in Jaffna Kilinochchi Vavuniya Mannar and Mullativu.    Karainagar is going to get a new     fishing boat yard costing 285 million,\nreported the media. In 2017, Urani village in Tellippalai, Jaffna, which was\nunder the custody of Sri Lanka forces, was released and   Yahapalana initiated a \u2018land mark project\u2019\nto construct anchorages and landing sites for the fishing community. Rs. 4.6\nmillion was released for the purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A string of projects\nwere announced in January 2017.  In the\nJaffna district, the projects initiated included establishment of an economic\ncentre in Chavakachcheri at a cost of Rs. 100 million, palmyrah-based food\nprocessing centre in Delft at a cost of Rs. 20 million, reconstruction of Araly\nNorth Murukamoorththy Temple Road at a cost of Rs. 5.2 million, development of\nanchorages in Palaly North, Polikandy East, Arali Centre and Urany amounting to\nRs. 288 million, a two-storey building at Karaveddy Vatharaniyeswara School at\na cost of Rs. 16 million, cultivation of grapes at an investment of Rs. 7.5\nmillion, net mending hall at Paasaiyoor at a cost of Rs. 6 million, fisheries\nlivelihood support at a cost of Rs. 10.5 million, renovation of passenger jetty\nat Nainatheevu for Rs. 30 million, and construction of two-storey Ward Block at\nDivisional Hospital, Karaveddy, at a cost of Rs 25 million. In\nKilinochchi District, a Rs. 20 million project has been initiated for a\npalmyrah-based food processing centre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mannar\nDistrict, 19 million has been allocated for crab cultivation at the Fishing\nCentre in Manthai West, construction of beach roads, and supply of\nnon-mechanised fishing craft to fishermen. In Mullaitivu District, water tanks\nand water supply has been initiated at a cost of Rs. 35.6 million in Vadakkadu,\nManthai East, Nanthakumaran Nagar, Thunukkai, Kichchirapuram, Maratimepattu,\nNeeravipitty-Selvapuram, Othiyamala-Oddusuddan and Issurupura, Pandulupura, and\nSangabopura in Weli Oya. In Vavuniya District, maintenance work on the\nMaravankulam Road for Rs. 24 million and reconstruction of irrigation tanks in\nSengal Padaikkulam, Karukkaikulam, Mathiyamadu and Sinnapoovarasankulam and\nother support infrastructure such as medical equipment for RDHS for Rs. 24\nmillion, construction of science lab in Matharpankarmakilarkulam GTMS and other\nrelated projects have been undertaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cabinet\nof Ministers granted approval, in 2017, for the rehabilitation and upgrading of\n66 roads in the conflict affected Northern and Eastern Provinces  Rs. 81 million for the construction of the\nKilali \u00ad\u2013 Eluthumadduwal road and Rs. 8.5 million to develop Urudippuram Fourth\nCross Street.\u201d Under this project in the Jaffna District roads such as\nValukkaiyaru Punguduththivu – Kurikadduwan Road, Jaffna Manipai- Karainagar\nRoad and Punnalai – Point Pedro Road, Eluthumadduwal \u2013 Nagarkovil Road\nincluding many Road Development Authority (RDA), (Road Development Department)\nRDD and rural roads, Nainathivu and Kurikadduwan Jetties are to be\nrehabilitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nKilinochchi District roads such as Murikandi Kanagapuram Paranthan Road and in\nthe Mullaitivu District the bridge across Kokkilai lagoon, Vadduvaikal bridge,\nand Vattapalai main road and in the Mannar District, Mahilankulam Pallamadhu\nRoad, Peramanalankulam Road, and Periyapandivirichan Road \u2013 Mullikulam Road and\nin the Batticaloa Kiran bridge, Santhiveli Thikiliveddai bridge and Marine\nDrive Batticaloa \u2013 Kalkuda Road will be rehabilitated and upgraded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2018\nBudget allocated Rs. 1000 million to be spent in the North. In 2018,\nPresident laid the foundation for the Mailaddy fisheries harbour, which will be\nrenovated at a cost of Rs 400 million aiming to streamline the fishing\nactivities in the Jaffna area especially in the Kankesanthurai area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A  Presidential\nTask Force on Northern and Eastern Province Development was established in\nAugust 2018.  This was a high-level\n48-member task force chaired by the President, \nto direct, coordinate and monitor development activities in the Northern\nand Eastern Provinces. The task force members include Prime Minister Ranil\nWickremesinghe, 15 Cabinet ministers, the Governors of the two provinces, the\nChief Ministers of the two provinces, secretaries to several ministries and\nCommanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019\ncabinet approval was granted for a 5-year project to resolve the water shortage\nproblem in the Jaffna Peninsula. The project submitted by the Mahaweli\nDevelopment and Environment Ministry,  \u2018A\nriver for Jaffna\u2019, has been designed to be completed within five years and is\nestimated to cost Rs. 3,609 million. As there are no rivers in the Jaffna\nPeninsula, the project, in order to resolve the chronic water shortage, aims at\nreducing the salinity of the well water bordering the Vadamaarachchi lagoon,\nincreasing the water supply for agriculture purposes by 8 million cubic meters\nand, increasing the fresh water supply for household purposes and consumption.\nThe project will be implemented in two stages within a period of five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019\nYahapalana stated that about Rs. 50 billion has been spent  in that year for the development of the\nNorthern and Eastern Provinces. Rs. 7 billion has been spent under the\nGamperaliya programme. <\/em>A<\/em>nother Rs. 24\nmillion has been spent on reviving the palmyrah industry, including bottling of\ntoddy, jaggery production and sweet sap production, Yahapalana   had also allocated Rs. 32.5 million for\nrural infrastructure development projects,.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palmyrah\nFund was launched  in 2019  by Yahapalana to accelerate development in\nthe North and East, with an investment of Rs.2.5 billion administered by the\nTreasury,\n<\/em>The Fund will be established soon through an Act of Parliament,\nsaid Yahapalana at the time. Once the Fund is formally established by the\ngovernment though an Act of Parliament, thousands and thousands of people from\nthe Diaspora all over the world can contribute,  said Yahapalana . Our government is committed\nto restoring normalcy to the lives of war affected persons and making them\nactive partners in Sri Lanka\u2019s development drive, said Prime Minister Ranil\nWickremesinghe \u201d .<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A committee\nwas appointed in 2018 to  prepare a\nMaster Plan for an Economic Development Framework for the North . Its report\nwas issued in 2019.Here are selected comments from this report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the ten\nyears since fighting ended, employment creation has also not met demand while\nthe Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts record the nation\u2019s lowest monthly\nincomes.  Indebtedness has soared. There\nis an increase in suicides and attempted suicides. Child nutrition levels have\nplunged said the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fifty percent\nincrease of departures for foreign employment from the province was reported\nfrom 2011 to 2016, with a peak annual figure of 12,642 in 2014, in Jaffna,\nwhere much of the Northern Province\u2019s people lived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreconstruction strategy lacked direction, was not holistic, was insufficiently\ncoordinated and carried out with a project-based mind-set, continued the report\n.  The Government\u2019s post-war\nreconstruction strategy had hitherto focused on building infrastructure such as\nroad, expanding lending to promote self-employment and encouraging\nprivate-sector investment. But expectations were not met. One reason for this\nwas that such initiatives did not enhance productivity of small-sized producers\nand organizations. Existing skills and capacity were not built upon, continued\nthe report.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any new\ndevelopment model should put monies into existing and new small-scale producers\nand industries to improve productivity, the report recommends. It must be\nlabour-intensive to get as many people into safe, secure and regular work as\npossible. It must make extensive use of land and natural resources and be\nagriculturally-led\u201d said the\nreport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee\nparticularly calls for investment in agriculture to achieve household\nresilience and food security. It must also\nsupport medium-term efforts for those able to take greater risks and move into\nhigher value markets, including exports, and it should be dispersed fairly\nacross the Northern Province and among different population groups to ensure\nthat regional and gender disparities are reduced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It calls for a focus on development of small\nindustries that use local resources, including agro-based processing for value\naddition, crafts, light manufacturing and renewable energy. It espouses a\nservices sector that meets local needs in areas such as financial services,\npublic transport, care and water and sanitation. The North is\ndominated by small-sized economic actors. They include smallholder farmers,\nsmall-scale fishers and small industries, businesses and co-operatives. When\nthey were suddenly re-integrated with the market in the rest of the country,\nmost of these uncompetitive producers lost out, stated the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aid actors\ntried to jump start production by introducing sophisticated technology in\nselected industries or promoting the establishment of new businesses. These\nwere largely unsuccessful because of a lack of understanding of the existing\ninstitutional capacity and skills within the region, said the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.A stark\nexample of this, the committee points out, is seen in the resurrection of\nAtchchuvely Industrial Estate\u2013costing Rs 210 million in 2013\u2013with the hope of\nattracting 16 medium-scale industries. As of July 2018, only a few industries\nare present, of which most are only partially operational.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s\nwar-torn north has only 23 Board of Investment (BOI) companies, just one of\nwhich is funded by the Diaspora, the lowest number of industrial enterprises in\nthe country and an industrial sector growing far slower than the national\naverage, the report said. ( Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 15.1.20 One way of erasing the Eelam victory was for the state to take the blame for the all the destruction caused, and promise to rebuild. After winning the Eelam War IV President Mahinda Rajapaksa went to Kilinochchi, spoke in Tamil and told the people there that his government will rebuild all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}