We will not give our land – Hambantota people

Nov 25, 2016

People of Hambantota say they will not allow a takeover of their land for the new investment zone there. Officials who had gone to Sri Somaloka Vihara at Aravanamulla to survey the area of permanent residents and to raise awareness about the takeover had to abandon their task due to protests.

The southern provincial deputy land commissioner, Grama Seva officer and other officials had to turn back from the meeting attended by a large number of area residents.
 
Meanwhile, people of Madilla disrupted survey work on the 18th protesting against the surveying being done without first informing them.
 
They said they would not leave their home villages for any reason. “We will not leave this village even if we are killed. If we leave this village, we will be dumped at slums,” said one of them Anusha Ramanayake.
 
“This land was given our ancestors in 1940. We have our land here. We will never leave,” said P. Gunaratne.
 
When contacted, district secretary W.H. Karunaratne said preliminary work has begun to identify around 3,000 acres of land from Hambantota to allow investment opportunities for Chinese and other foreign investors.
 
The takeover of the land is yet to begin, and identifying land for the projects is now on, he said, adding that maximum effort would be made to avoid settlements.
 
(Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchi)