SL military seeks to appropriate market complex at Tamil suburb of Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 February 2014, 23:02 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee has sought to permanently appropriate the land and the buildings of Malaiyaruvi, a building complex constructed in 1994 by the Trincomalee Town Council to establish a public market at the Power House Road, where Eezham Tamils reside in large numbers. Recently, the SL military has approached Mr Sirimewan Dharmasena, the land commissioner at the Eastern Provincial Department asking the latter to undertake surveying of the lands.

The buildings for the public market were constructed by the efforts of the then Town Council Chairman Sooriya Moorthy as the Tamil people were subjected to attacks by the Sinhalese at the public market situated near the clock tower in the city.

However, the Sri Lankan administration didn’t want the Malaiyaruvi market to compete with the public market situated near the clock tower and managed to put the work on hold. The SL military has been using the site as a military base.

The Town Council had used 9 millian rupees in order to construct the buildings in early 90s, according to Town Council officials.

When the chairman of Trincomalee Town Council Mr K Selvarajah complained to the Land Commissioner, he asked the Tamil representatives to approach the SL Defence Ministry in Colombo.

Despite the earlier demands by the former presidents of the Town Council, Mr Sooriya Moorthy and Mr Gowry Mukunthan to vacate the site of the Malaiyaruvi public market, the SL military has been using it as their camp.