News
UN offers help to resolve North-East land issues
View(s):By S. Rubatheesan
A new United Nations programme aims to assist the government in resolving longstanding land-related issues in Sri Lanka’s war-affected Northern and Eastern provinces, where a large number of claims remain unresolved—sixteen years after the conflict’s end.
“We are holding constructive discussions with government entities under the Agriculture Ministry. We are finalising the details and hope to launch the programme within the next few months,” UN Resident Coordinator Marc-André Franche told the Sunday Times.
Till March this year, the UN had been actively involved in extending support for resettlement and rehabilitation with livelihood programmes.
Considering its long-time involvement related to resettlement and livelihood programmes in the two provinces during and after the war, the UN has offered its support to the Government in tackling land-related problems arising from damaged land documents, migration, the death of owners and the return of refugees.
The UN Office had earlier held talks with the previous government in this regard. The discussions resulted in the previous government launching the ‘Urumaya’ land title distribution programme. The present government renamed the programme “Himigama’, distributing land ownership titles with strict conditions.
“In this process of what I would call land reform in the two provinces, the UN office will assist the government in the issuance of land ownership certificates and help degazetting efforts to private owners,” Mr. Franche said.
The USD 3 million project is to be implemented over two years in selected districts in the two provinces.
The UN will also help degazette the land that is under the Department of Wildlife and Department of Forest, with the Government agreeing in principle to degazette four per cent of the land.
“However, the process is complicated. It involves lawyers, delimitation of lands, and surveyors. We would help in this process as well,” he said.
The UN programme also envisages the setting up of a ‘land observatory’ in collaboration with local universities so that solid data and information on land can support land management throughout the country.
The UN Resident Coordinator welcomed President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Jaffna statement, where he reiterated that “every plot of land in the North, which was acquired by the security forces during the war, would be released back to the people”.
“If you are in the post-conflict reconstruction phase, fighting poverty while repairing the economy, the better way is to put the land into better use,” the Resident Coordinator said.
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