An attempt to legalize the takeover of private land for President’s House in Jaffna has been thwarted.
Owners of the land protested against a visiting Survey Department team yesterday (26) and handed them a letter of protest.
Of the 29-acre plot, 12 acres belong to the state, on which the facility began to be built in 2010 during the Mahinda Rajapaksa rule.
It is claimed Tamils have deeds to prove they own the other 17 acres.
They say the military took over their land after they fled in the face of the war in 1990.
Without consent by the landowners, the government decided last December to lease 12 acres of the property owned by it to SLIIT, to be followed by the remaining 17 acres too, leased out to the same institute to ensure an income to the Tamils.