Mahinda doctrine deprives Tamils of irrigation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2010, 01:44 GMT]
While the Sri Lankan state with its 'Mahinda doctrine' has revamped the 50-year-old Sinhala colonisation scheme in the Ampaa'rai and Batticaloa under a new name tag, Navodaya, calling it a 'renaissance' programme and spending 1,260 million rupees between 2008 and 2011, one of the potential irrigation source of Tamils in Batticaloa, U'rukaamam tank in Paduvaan-karai, situated 20 km north of Batticaloa city, has been completely ignored. Two third of water in the tank is going waste without any benefit to the farmers under its potential reach. Dr.R.Rushanthan, Deputy Commissioner of Agrarian Development Services has said only thirty percent of those residing in the area manage to live with at least one meal per day.

The details from Dr. Rushanthan differ from the impression given by Batticaloa Government Agent, who testified before Rajapaksa's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in camera on November 26 in Colombo. The Government Agent told the commmission that 99 percent of those uprooted from Paduvaankarai have been resettled with all facilities and necessary assistance.

In sharp contrast to what the paramilitary-cum-politicians of collaboration agenda wants the Tamils in Batticaloa to believe, the Sri Lankan state machinery is showing interest only to develop Sinhalese-settled areas under state-aided colonisation schemes in the East.

The Tamil farmers in the East have urged the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to take their pathetic plight to the concerned and to create a conducive situation for resettlement in their own villages.

U'rukaamam tank was constructed in 1836 when the island was under British rule. Since then, this tank has been the main source of irrigation and to earn by cattle breeding and fresh water fishing.

The tank comes under the administration of Department of Irrigation in Chengkaladi. The department has not distributed even a single cubic meter of water from the tank during Maha season since 1965, farmers in the area say.

Paddy cultivation in more than 10,000 acres of farming land located in Vellaave'li, Kokkaddichchoalai, Pazhukaamam and Karadiyanaa'ru has been abandoned due to non-availability of irrigation facilities.

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