62 families in Champoor demand lands back from abandoned coal power plant

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 March 2017, 22:14 GMT]
The lands seized for the construction of drainage canals from the now abandoned coal power plant scheme in Champoor have not been released back to the land owners from Champoor and Kadatkaraich-cheanai, rights activists in Champoor complain. 27 families from Champoor and 35 families from Kadatkarai-cheanai are planning to launch a protest demanding their lands back, they said. The affected land-owners have also been sidelined in the provision of housing schemes so far. Colombo is reluctant to release these lands with a hidden motive of transferring the lands to some other purpose, the activists said.

The drainage was initially schemed across 1/3 of Kadatkaraich-cheanai at the width of 100 meters and at the length of 400 meters. The canal was also schemed across Champoor at the width of 20 meters and at the length of 400 meters.

The land owners have been repeatedly urging the government officials to respond to their request to release the seized lands. But, the officials have not secured any concrete response from the SL authorities in Colombo.

In the meantime, a SL minister was trying to construct a housing scheme for outside labourers who are to be settled among the resettled Tamils.



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