Palmyrah Handicraft center opens in Pallai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 October 2005, 11:45 GMT]
A center for training unemployed women and youths in handicrafts from Palmyrah produce was opened in Maazar village in Pallai administrative district last week for a cost of Rs 460,000 funded by International Labor Organization (ILO) and local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), co-ordinated by Palmyrah Development Board and the Economic Consultancy House (TECH), sources from Pallai said.

Planning officer for TECH, Mr Janarthanan presided the event.

National Peace Council NPC executive committee member, Mr.Nimalan Karthikeyan, lit the ceremonial flame at the start of the event and Executive Director of TECH, S Suhunan hoisted the Tamileelam flag.

Kilinochchi district Official for the Palmyrah Development Board, Mr Maanicam, and Pallai Assistant Government Agent gave welcome addresses. Ms Vathani Janavi, Teacher at the Training Center, detailed the activities and training methods to be used at the center.

More than 40 trainees are currently undergoing training.

"The Center fulfils the long felt need to utilize the abundance of Palmyrah produce available in Maazar and surrounding villages towards benefitting the people in these villages. With Palmyrah Board and TECH undertaking to market the products from this center including home products and furnishings, decorative items, and other accessories, we will be able to uplift the economic standing of the villagers," Mr Suhunan said. In addition, more enterprising trainees will be able to start businesses on their own, he added.



The Sri Lankan armed forces have been accused of indiscriminately destroying forests in the north and east either in military operations, where the use of multi-baralleled rocket launchers decimated several forests, or cutting down trees to build bunkers and illegal logging activities.

Military officers have been accused of supplying the lucrative trade in palmyrah and coconut timber, valued across the island for making rafters.

Civil groups have complained in the past that the environmental balance of the peninsula could be affected seriously as the Palmyrah is central to its ecology.

The Palmyrah Development board and the Tamileelam Economic Development Organizaton(TEEDOR), the economic research and planning arm of the Liberation Tigers, together are to plant more than 100,000 Palmyrah saplings during the next twelve months in the Vanni to replenish the lost trees and to encourage environmental preservation, said officials..