President Maithripala Sirisena instructed the authorities to complete the process of releasing the lands in the North and East provinces to their original owners, before December 31, after resolving all the issues.
He gave these instructions when the Presidential Task Force to monitor the development projects conducted in Northern and Eastern provinces gathered for the third time on September 03 at the Parliamentary Complex.
The President further instructed the officials to prepare a proper time frame and report the progress to the next meeting of the Presidential Task Force to monitor the development projects conducted in Northern and Eastern provinces, to be held in the next month.
Further, special attention was drawn regarding the releasing of lands and buildings belong to schools, which are still under the control of the security forces as well as about the progress of the projects implemented to solve the issue of drinking water in the North and East Provinces.
The people living in several parts of the Trincomalee District are facing severe water shortage and during this meeting the President inquired into the programme which was launched to solve this issue.
Even though Akkaraipaththu area has adequate water resources, due to the lack of a distribution network, the water distribution approaches to several villages and communities were obstructed and attention was drawn to find prompt solutions for this issue.
The progress of the programmes implemented to provide reliefs to the drought affected people in the North and East Provinces as well as progress of the programmes launched to prevent the violence acts and the use of drugs in the North and East provinces were also discussed.
President Sirisena, who inquired about the progress of the development activities of the shrine of Our Lady at Madu, emphasized that all should fulfill their respective duties appropriately in the process of providing development benefits to the people in the North and East which was deprived from them due to the prolonged war.
The President also explained the importance of getting the support of all the sectors when reaching the expected development goals.
Ministers and MPs, including Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, Provincial Governors, Secretary to the President Udaya R. Seneviratne, public servants, Tri Force Commanders, heads of security forces including the Inspector General of Police participated in this discussion.
-PMD
