Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-11-08

Resettlement of Landless Internally Displaced (IDP) Families residing in Welfare Centres

- Measures are being taken by the Government to accelerate the resettlement activities of the IDP families residing in the Welfare Centres. There are, presently, 971 such families residing in the Welfare Centres in the Jaffna District and measures have been taken to resettle 462 families out of these 682 landless families, in alternative lands and there still have 220 families for whom lands remain to be identified for resettlement. Since there is a scarcity of state lands in the Jaffna District, it has been proposed to purchase private lands so as to provide 20 perches of land per family in order to resettle the 220 families. As such, the proposal made by Hon. D.M. Swaminathan, the Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs, to allocate a maximum sum of Rs.88 Million, to purchase the private lands required for the purpose, through the District Secretary Jaffna, was approved by the Cabinet.