NPC councillors demand SL military to hand over seized cattle back to civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 January 2014, 18:31 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Vanni is operating a dairy farm near Muththaiyan-kaddu tank in Mullaiththeevu and is competing with the resettling Tamil farmers by cutting the prices down through its military-corporatist approach, according to Tamil councillors P. Iyngaranesan and K. Sarveswaran of the Northern Provincial Council. The occupying SL military had seized around 2,000 cattle belonging to Tamil farmers in Vanni during the genocidal onslaught and has seized 65 acres of the lands and buildings belonging to the Irrigation Department to run its dairy farm. 

After consuming the milk needed to the military, the SL military is marketing the milk to the public and is selling the remaining to Nestle company. 

In the meantime, farmers who lost their cattle are struggling to sustain their livelihood, those who depend on the income from owning cattle are also affected by the competition by the SL military run dairy farm. 

Tamil councillor Sarveswaran demanded that a civil authority such as a ministry under the NPC should take over the dairy farm, return the cattle back to their real owners and operate the facility under a civil administrative mechanism with transparency. 

The SL military is running similar dairy farms in Vavuniyaa and Mannaar as well as in the former High Security Zone, which is being transformed into a Sinhala Military Zone in Valikaamam North in Jaffna, news sources further said. 

The SL military in Jaffna has recently brought 65 severely infected cows for treatment at a civil facility in Jaffna and serious diseases are spreading from the SMZ in Jaffna to other places.