CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

CIVIL COMMOTION OVER THE CLOSURE OF IRRIGATION CANAL BY LTTE TERRORISTS

By Walter Jayawardhana

Venerable Seruwila Saranakitti, the Chief Sangha nayaka of the Eastern and Thamnkadu areas said he will not be holding the fast in protest against the LTTE stopping irrigation water to thousands of acres of rice fields and other crops since government has promised to intervene and open up the irrigation sluices at the anicut.

Depriving water to thousands of farmers from July 20 2006 the terrorists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam closed the sluice gates .

Hundreds of farmers were collecting at Kallar junction protesting against the the closure of the anicut at Verugal directing water along an irrigation canal using waters of Mavil Aru , a tributary of the island nation’s longest river, the Mahaveli Ganga. The closure had affected the villages of SERUNUWARA, MUTTUR, UYLANKULAM, VILANPATTU, KILIWEDDY, KALLAR, DEHIWATTA, SELVANAGAR and NEELAPOLA areas.

The very act of the closure of the irrigation anicut by the terrorists showed the folly of the ceasefire agreement signed by the Ranil Wickremesinghe government , critics pointed out. The anicut is in the area demarcated for the the liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by the Ranil Wickremesinghe government they said.

The irrigation engineers who went to open up the sluices were chased out by the armed terrorists of the liberation Tigers of Tamil Tigers.

Although the government promised Venerable Saranakitti that they would intervene to open up the closed sluices the anicut is in the LTTE controlled area critics pointed out.

Venerable Saranatissa said it was wrong for the LTTE to claim that the anicut is theirs since it was there to provide water for the poor villagers.

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