Protests have spread in Jaffna to demand back the land Tamils have lost as a result of a still-valid gazette issued in 2013 to allow the state to acquire around 6,000 of acres of land.
In addition to the continuing agitations at three locations, anther started at Vasuvilan that takes place every Sunday.
A new weapon for current regime too
At this particular protest, ITAK MP Sivagnanam Sridaran accused the NPP regime of using the gazette notification as a weapon against Tamils without making it null and void.
Issued during the Mahinda Rajapaksa rule, it remains in force to prevent owners to establish their legal rights for around 3,000 acres that were freed to them by the good governance regime.
Sridaran accused the president of deceiving the Tamils by promising to return the land, but without giving a timeframe to do so.
Forced to buy agricultural produce from own land
The military cultivates the entire land it occupies, where no camp of theirs is located, and owners are forced to buy the produce from their own land, he said.
Weekly protests
The venues for the regular protests are in front of the commander’s bungalow on Fridays and at Palaly Junction on every Sundays.
ITAK general secretary M.A. Sumanthiran told the media during a protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on 03 August the president, at a meeting with six Tamil parties, expressed a desire to return the private land and said he has called for a report in that regard.