TRO launches housing scheme for Thiriyai resettlers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2003, 19:37 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is to lay foundation Thursday for a housing scheme in Thiriyai village, a traditional Tamil village, about forty-two km north of Trincomalee town. The proposed housing scheme is to facilitate refugees to return to their own land after about twenty years, sources said.

The entire Tamil population of the village was displaced following the violence in 1985 and 1990 due to military operation of the Sri Lanka Army. Since then the village had been in an abandoned state and also overgrown with shrub jungle.

All houses in Thiriyai were destroyed in the military operation, sources said.

Hundreds of displaced Tamil families are now returning to the village since the signing of the ceasefire agreement by the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

LTTE Trincomalee district political head Mr.Tilak and two Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians Mr.R.Sampanthan and K.Thurairetnasingham are also scheduled to participate in the foundation stone laying event.

In addition, the office of the Socio-Economic Development Committee will be declared open at Thiriyai Thursday to take forward the resettlement project smoothly, sources said.

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