ADB assists resettled IDPs in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 12:43 GMT]
In the context of Sri Lanka government failing in its duty to provide assistance to the resettled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Jaffna peninsula as promised, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has stepped in to help the IDPs, paying each of the 16,831 IDP families with the second stage payment of 25,000 rupees, sources in Jaffna said. It is alleged that the government is yet to pay the first stage of payment of 5,000 rupees to some of the IDP families, the sources added.

ADB which is involved in assistance projects in the spheres of Education, Agriculture and Irrigation in the North and East through North East Community Restoration and Development (NECORD) organization has come forward to provide assistance to the IDPs in Jaffna peninsula.

It is understood that ADB has limited its assistance to its earlier projects because of its decision to help the resettled IDPs.

Sri Lanka government which had promised the IDPs that it would pay the second stage payment of 25,000 rupees before the end of December did not keep its promise.

The government had further said that it would pay a sum of 2,50,000 rupees to each IDP family but it had not taken any action to pay the IDPs, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.