NEERP funds hospital construction in Muttur east

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2004, 17:52 GMT]
Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.S.Thilak Monday noon laid the foundation stone for the proposed government hospital complex in Eachilapamathu village in the LTTE held Muttur east in the Trincomalee district. The hospital is to be built at a cost of 20 million rupees allocated by the World Bank funded North East Emergency Reconstruction Project (NEERP).

Site where the hospital complex is under construction

Muttur Divisional Secretary Mr.A.Nadarajah, LTTE Eachchilampathu area leader Mr.Thangan and several LTTE cadres participated in the event.

The Royal Construction Company has undertaken the implementation of the project. Its head Mr.S.Jegatheesan said the duration of the contract is eight months and the construction would be completed before the end of this year.

The hospital complex will comprise central dispensary, outdoor patients department, maternity ward, quarters for medical officers and other basic facilities on a seven acre land earmarked in the heart of Eachilampathu village along A15 highway which connects Muttur and Batticaloa in the south of Trincomalee district, sources said.

LTTE Trincomalee district political head Mr.Thilak getting ready to lay foundation

Eachilampathu-Verugal Assistant Government Agent division comprises twenty- four Tamil villages with a population of about thirty thousand in nine Grama Sevaka (village level) divisions. Government authorities have ignored several requests made by the local residents to upgrade the AGA division into a Divisional Secretariat (DS) division, sources said.

As there is no full-fledged government hospital in the division, people are forced to go to Serunuwara government hospital or to Muttur hospital, which are located several miles away from the Eachchilampathu for medical treatment.

Serunuwara hospital is located in the Sinhala dominated Seruvila Divisional Secretariat division.

Currently a medical officer from Killiveddy hospital visits Eachilampathu government dispensary twice a week. The rest of the week the dispensary is closed.

The Sri Lanka Army destroyed the dispensary in 1990 following military operation and later it was repaired but not opened for the use of public, as no medical officer was prepared to stay there, sources said.



Mr.Thilak, Eachcilampathu LTTE area leader Mr.Thangan, Mr.Jegatheesan ( Royal Construction) are seen at the site after foundation stone was laid



With the construction of a new hospital with quarters for medical officers people of the Eachchilampathu-Verugal AGA division expect medical officers would prefer to stay in the hospital and serve, sources said.