‘Normalcy in NE only when displaced are resettled’ - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 17:14 GMT]
Normalcy will return to the North East province only after thousands of displaced people now languishing in refugee camps and welfare centers are resettled in their own lands, said Mr.R. Sampanthan, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentary group leader, at a function to open the office of the Socio Economic Development Committee (SEDC) in Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village forty-two kilometers north of Trincomalee, sources said.
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TRO starts housing project for Thiriyai resettlers

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 01:55 GMT]
Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan, at twelve noon Thursday, laid the first foundation stone for the first house for resettled families at Kaddukulam in Thiriyai village, forty-two km north of Trincomalee town. Trincomalee district office of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is building five hundred houses as part of this housing project, sources said.
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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.


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Provincial economic commission to be established

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 March 2003, 23:19 GMT]
The United National Front government Thursday announced the establishment of economic commissions at the provincial level from next Wednesday, as stated in its last general election manifesto. Three provincial economic commissions will be first established. A business tycoon, Mr. Lalith Kotelawala, Chairman of the Seylan group of companies, will head the North Western Provincial Economic Commission and the Central Provincial Economic Commission, said Minister Mr. G.L.Peiris at a press briefing Thursday.
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LTTE-TNA agree to take forward peace process

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 March 2003, 18:22 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Tamil National Alliance Friday agreed to work jointly to take forward the present peace process strengthening the relationship between Tamils and Muslims, TNA sources said.
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Thiriyai prepares for resettlement amid navy harassment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 March 2003, 00:30 GMT]
As the first paddy harvest after nearly twenty years is nearing completion at Thiriyai, the displaced Tamil families who returned from Vanni and residing currently in welfare camps at Nilaveli pleaded Tuesday at a mobile service held in Thiriyai, that authorities should make immediate arrangements to resettle them in their own lands, sources in Trincomalee said.
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NE volunteer teachers to continue sit-in protest

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 March 2003, 18:49 GMT]
The sit-in-protest by several hundred Tamil medium volunteer teachers from the districts of Batticaloa and Amparai in front of the provincial education ministry in Trincomalee continued for the third day on Wednesday.
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PM urged to solve Tamil medium teacher shortage in NE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 March 2003, 07:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Wednesday requested the United National Front government to grant permanent appointments to around one thousand volunteer teachers without any further delay as per the Cabinet approval already granted by the previous government “ This would only to some extent reduce the existing shortage of around 5500 Tamil medium teachers in the northeast province,” said TNA parliamentary group leader and the Trincomalee district parliament Mr.R.Sampanthan in a three page letter faxed to the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe.
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Volunteer teachers picket demanding permanent appointment

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 March 2003, 19:02 GMT]
More than two hundred volunteer teachers from Batticaloa and Amparai districts Monday launched a picketing campaign in front of the office of the North East Provincial Ministry of Education in Trincomalee demanding that they should be made permanent immediately as given assurance earlier, sources said.


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SLN claims Thampalakamam pastureland as HSZ

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 March 2003, 23:09 GMT]
Hundreds of cattle farmers in the predominantly Tamil village, Thampalakamam, in the Trincomalee district have almost lost their livelihood following a ban by the Sri Lanka Navy to use pastureland allocated close to the Attavanaikulam tank for their cattle to graze. The Sri Lanka Navy has imposed the ban stating that about one thousand acres of pastureland in Attavanaikulam comes under the high security zone, agricultural sources said.
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TNA MP gets computers to Trinco schools

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 February 2003, 22:08 GMT]
Twelve rural schools from Pulmoddai in the north to Verugal in the south of the Trincomalee district have been supplied with computers purchased under the decentralized budget allocation for the year 2002 given to Trincomalee district parliamentarian, Mr.R.Sampanthan. The total cost of the computers and band equipment is about four million rupees, education sources said.
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No state lands for tourism development - Trinco DCC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 February 2003, 17:58 GMT]
The Trincomalee District Co-ordinating Committee (DCC) has decided not to encourage foreign investment in the development of tourism in the east port town by granting state land. The decision was taken at the DCC meeting held Tuesday at the district secretariat on a suggestion by the Trincomalee district parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan.


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TNA members meet LTTE in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 February 2003, 16:31 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today discussed modalities to be effective in raising their voices together on issues related to bringing normalcy to lives of the war affected people of North East and to promote the urgent need for rehabilitation and development activities, during a meeting between the TNA parliamentarians and officials of the LTTE that took place in Kilinochichi, sources close to the TNA said.


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'Development before peace won't benefit Tamils' - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 February 2003, 17:57 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Saturday said that peace and development in the Tamil dominated northeast province should take place simultaneously. "If development takes place first and the peace comes later then the beneficiaries will not be Tamils but some others," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee district parliamentarian and the parliamentary group leader of the TNA, while addressing families resettled in Kappalthurai, a village located 10km west of Trincomalee town.
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NECORD allocates more money to NE education development

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2003, 19:25 GMT]
The North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) funded by the Asian Development Bank has already spent six hundred million rupees for the educational development of the eight districts in the northeast province and also it is prepared to spend another one thousand million rupees, NECORD Project Director Mr.T.Lankaneson said Thursday.
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Opening of LTTE war memorial delayed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2003, 19:24 GMT]
At a conference held Thursday at the political office of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Nilaveli, sixteen km north of Trincomalee town, a decision was made to delay the opening of the reconstructed war memorial in Gopalapuram in remembrance of twenty-two LTTE cadres who died in a boat mishap in 1990, until the problem is sorted out by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the Tamil parliamentarians of the Trincomalee district, sources said.
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Kanniya Tamil School reopens after twenty years

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2003, 13:41 GMT]
The Kanniya Government Tamil School Thursday re-opened after twenty years. Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, Mr.R.Sampanthan, Thursday morning ceremonially re-opened the school and inaugurated the distribution of schoolbooks donated by the UNICEF to newly admitted students.
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TULF urges govt. to expedite displaced resettlement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 January 2003, 20:42 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), main constituent of the Tamil National Alliance Saturday urged the United National Front government to expeditiously take steps to enable the displaced people to recommence normal life in their original places of residence. A resolution this effect was adopted at the central working committee meeting of the Tamil United Liberation Front held in Vavuniya Saturday.
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Colonel Kittu's tenth anniversary commemorated

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 January 2003, 22:54 GMT]
The tenth death anniversary of Colonel Kittu, a senior commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was observed in northeastern province Thursday. Colonel Kittu and nine other LTTE members committed suicide when the Indian Navy cordoned off the boat in which they were sailing to Sri Lanka. Kittu was the head of the LTTE's International Secretariat at the time of his death.
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Committee to activate Trincomalee university campus

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 15:31 GMT]
The Prime Minister has appointed a high level committee to activate the functions of the Trincomalee campus of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka following request made by the Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan. Mr. Sampanthan requested the PM to take immediate steps to develop the Trincomalee campus providing all facilities as it has been ignored by the authorities, sources said.
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