Seruvila Tamil villages overlooked in relief distribution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2005, 16:05 GMT]
About 450 families numbering around 1000 persons in Upooral and Cheenanveli, two remote Tamil coastal villages in the Sinhala dominated Seruvila division in the Trincomalee district are not provided with dry rations and other relief by the Sri Lanka government and the World Food Programme since Tsunami hit the areas. These two villages are in the LTTE controlled areas, NGO sources said.

Roads and other infrastructure facilities in these villages have been destroyed by Tsunami.

People are finding very difficult to travel to the co-operative society located about fifteen miles away from their villages, sources said.

The Divisional Secretary of the Seruvila division is a Sinhalese and other officials related to relief work are also Sinhalese.

Till Thursday no government official had gone to these two villages to provide any relief although the LTTE has allowed government officials to visit these villages and to provide assistance to the victims, sources said.

Since December 26, LTTE activists and Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) are providing basic relief to those affected, sources said.