Sri Lanka rolls back notice on land settlements in Tamil-dominated north

Colombo, May 27 (PTI) The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday revoked a gazette on land settlement in the Tamil-majority Northern Province.

The gazette notification, issued on March 28 by the Land Title Settlement Department, was opposed by the minority Tamil parties, which said it was an attempt to acquire lands belonging to the settlements of northern residents.

Tamil political parties in the island nation thanked the government for withdrawing the notification.

“We are thankful to the government for revoking the gazette,” Tamil National Alliance Spokesperson MA Sumanthiran told reporters.

He said the minority parties wrote to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake urging the revocation of the gazette.

The TNA had pointed out that it was unfair to acquire lands of settlers who were unable to prove ownership.

“This would have caused protests with civil disobedience campaigns,” Sumanthiran said.

Minority groups have called for the return of the northern lands held for military purposes during the raging armed conflict by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for a separate Tamil homeland in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

The LTTE collapsed in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Since 2015, the government has returned some of the lands while still holding lands around key military installations. PTI CORR GRS GRS GRS