SLA agrees Vadamaradchi NECORD work can go ahead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 19:43 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Wednesday said it would allow the deepening of fisheries landing points in the Vadamaradchi north coastal areas, from Kerudavil to Katkovalam east, after fisheries societies representatives and Divisional Secretariat (DS) officials brought to the notice of the army officials present at the conference held Wednesday that they had already sought permission from the SLA in this regard, sources said.

The Point Pedro DS officials produced a copy of the letter sent to the army official concerned, seeking permission to deepen the landing points under the NECORD project when the SLA’s 524 brigade commander, Colonel Ratnayake, told the fisheries representatives and civil officials that they stopped the project because fisheries officials had failed to obtain prior permission from the SLA, fisheries sources said.

The conference, summoned to find an amicable solution to the problem, was held Wednesday at the 524 brigade headquarters located in the Point Pedro high security zone in the presence of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission head in Jaffna, sources said.

The conference began around 11 a.m. and concluded at about 1 p.m. SLA officials who are in charge of SLA camps located in the northern coastal areas and Valvettithurai police officials attended the conference, sources said.

On the civilian side, fisheries society representatives, Divisional Secretariat officials and Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, Mr.M.K.Sivajilingam, participated in the meeting, sources said.

Fisheries representatives said at the conference that about 2.5 million rupees have been allocated by the NECORD for deepening ten fisheries landing points in the Vadamaradchi north coast, sources said.