Resettled Kanniya farmers to get paddy store

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 17:46 GMT]
The resettled farm families in the Kanniya village, about six km north of Trincomalee town on the Trinco-Anuradhapura road, are to get a new paddy store and co-operative retail shop. Earlier the paddy store and retail shop were completely destroyed without any remains at the site in the 1990 violence by Sri Lanka’s armed forces after entire villagers fled and sought refuge in the Vanni and other areas including in India, civil sources said.

The Trincomalee Multi Purposes Co-operative Society last Saturday laid the foundation stone for the new co-operative complex, which is to be constructed at a cost of about 2.6 million rupees. The paddy store will be constructed at a cost of about 1.8 million rupees and the retail shop in a sum of eight hundred thousand rupees and the work on the project would be completed by April next year, the general manager of the MPCS Mr.T.Balagengatharan said.

A senior citizen of Kanniya, seventy five years old Mr.K.Kumarawamy, laying the foundation for the co-operative complex while the Hindu priest Bramha Sri Ravichandrakurukkal looks on.

Trincomalee MPCS has undertaken to implement this project with its own funds, he added.

The Trincomalee district secretariat of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) has been engaged in providing facilities to resettled internally displaced families in the village returning to their lands with the ceasefire agreement. The main occupation of the people of Kanniya before its destruction was agriculture and animal husbandry. Several hundred heads of cattle had gone astray since 1990 violence, cattle breeders said.

The resettled farmers brought about five hundred acres under paddy this year. The Trincomalee MPCS purchased their produce by organizing mobile service as no paddy store is in the village. Before 1990 the Trincomalee MPCS had a branch in Kanniya with member strength of one thousand, sources said

The President of the Trinco MPCS, Mr.P.Jegatheewaran, laid the first foundation stone while the special pooja was held at the site where the destroyed MPCS complex was located ten years ago by the Hindu priest Brahma Sri S.Ravichandrakurukal of Trincomalee Pathirakali Amman temple, sources said.

Trincomalee District Assistant Commissioner of Co-operative Development Mr.V. Balasubramaniam and several officials of the MPCS and resettled farmers also participated in the foundation-laying event, sources said.




The site at Kanniya where ten years ago the paddy store and retail shop were located.





Abandoned paddy land in Kanniya





Hindu priest Bramha Sri Ravaichandrakurukkal is seen holding special pooja at the site where the earlier co-operative complex was located and before the laying the foundation for the new co-operative complex