Batticaloa flood victims demand relief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 January 2011, 02:16 GMT]
Flood affected people Tuesday morning held a demonstration blocking road traffic in Maanmunaipattu North division in Batticaloa district demanding immediate relief, sources in Batticaloa said. The refugees said they are suffering without even one meal a day due to the failure of the authorities to distribute assistance. The victims accuse Colombo for not making arrangement to supply cooked meals and dry rations through Divisional Secretariat offices in the districts that have been innundated with flood waters due to two week long torrential rains.

However, Non-government al organizations, village level societies, sports clubs, Rural Development Societies and wealthy persons of the Batticaloa district have provided much needed assistance to the affected people, local residents said.

The Government Agent has said over seventeen thousand displaced persons are still sheltered in sixteen camps.

Amid claims by the District Government Agent that the Disaster Management Ministry had allocated 25 million rupees for relief assistance and by the Resettlement Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan that each DS area in the district had been allocated 2 million rupees, majority of the affected people complain that they have not received proper relief.

The Government of India had also given 25 metric tonnes of dry rations as flood relief.

A Paramilitary group two days earlier had attacked the officials at the Maanmunaippattu DS accusing them for failing to distribute assistance to the victims.

The flood water has not receded in Paduwankarai area till Tuesday, according to the Batticaloa District Secretariats sources.