Batticaloa farmers discriminated in compensation payments-TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 February 2006, 16:40 GMT]
Mr.T.Kanagasabai, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, made an urgent appeal to the Minister of Agriculture not to show racial discrimination in paying compensation to farmers whose paddy crops had been destroyed due to flood by heavy rain during the end of last year, sources said.

Mr.Kanagasabai urged the minister to take steps immediately to pay compensation to Tamil speaking farmers in Batticaloa district whose paddy crops were destroyed by rain. Mr.Kanagasabai reminded the Minister that several thousand acres of paddy crops farmers in the Batticaloa district were also ruined due to flood like in Pollonaruwa district, sources said.

However the Ministry of Agriculture has already taken steps to assess the damage in Pollonaruwa district where the affected farmers are Sinhalese but ignored the Tamil farmers in the Batticaloa district, Mr.Kanagasabai said in a letter to the Agriculture Minister.