SL Government suspends dry ration relief to Amparai IDPs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2004, 17:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has suspended giving free dry rations to more than one thousand resettled internally displaced families residing in villages Sagamam, Kanchikudicharu, Thangavelauthapuram, Thandiyady and Kanchirankuda in the Thirukovil division in the Amparai district, forcing many families close to starvation, civil groups said.

The distribution of free dry ration due to these families since January this year has been stopped , sources said.

The families were resettled in several villages in Thirukovil divisional secretariat division in 2002. Since then they have been distributed with free dry ration under the World Food Programme (WFP) for their existence, sources said.

Most of the resettled families depend on rain-fed cultivation. This year rain-fed paddy cultivation in these villages was not successful due to monsoon failure.

With the stoppage of distribution of free dry ration through WFP, these villagers have been driven to a state to beg for food, civil sources said.