An open letter the President Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa
| by V. Anandasangaree
(September 30, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I regret to bring to your notice the concerns of the people of the North and of the Tamils living aboard about the action that is now being taken by the Government, to register the lands owned by them or held in trust or otherwise by them. No one can succeed in collecting the required details asked for in the questionnaire form No. PS/01/2011 issued by the Ministry of Lands and Land Development for the registration of ownership of lands under the new scheme.
The people very genuinely feel that this scheme is neither justifiable nor beneficial to them. They also feel that this is yet another scheme to harass them and are convinced that the Government has an agenda of its own for collecting the details asked for in the form. During the last fifty years or more some activities of the Government had caused a lot of unrest and pain of mind for the Tamil People.
If this scheme is going to be implemented Island wide, why can’t the Government start this in districts where normalcy prevailed for several years and people are living in their homes and not displaced for any reason. But in the North and the East people faced enough problems due to the war and repeated displacements. Some are not in their homes. Some have lost all their documents along with their belongings. Some had gone aboard and some are missing. Many died without leaving a will. The heirs of persons died intestate do not know whether they are also beneficiaries of his properties. There are children who died leaving property for which there may be many claimants. There are many more complicated problems. Problems arising from certain properties cannot be solved by the Ministry of Lands. Let those problems be handled by the Court of Law and not by the civil or military officials.
The people who had lost almost all their possessions are now scared that they will lose more under this scheme. I do not believe that this is going to be a useful scheme. The people, left alone, will sort-out matters themselves without any body’s interference. If they fail, they can seek remedy through courts of law.
If the people who are landless, wanting land for themselves, the Government can very well indentify some crown lands and meet their requirements. Please warn the officials not to harass the people who had suffered enough and lost enough. Above all due to the loss of their kith and kin and living with the expectation that their dear once will return one day, they are not in a mood to get involved in this type of problems now. I humbly request you to advice the Land Ministry to abandon this scheme which is very unpopular among the people in the North. In respect of disputed property the parties can go to courts or to the Government Agent if the dispute relates to private lands or crown lands respectively.
I hope you will intervene at least at this stage and give relief to the people of the North and the East by abandoning this scheme, which has caused a lot worries for the people of the North, where the scheme is now about to be implemented.
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