Tamil families caught in dilemma of transferring lands in Seruvila, Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2018, 19:14 GMT]
The rulers of genocidal Sri Lanka, who launched a Sinhala colonisation scheme and created the division of Seruvila in the district of Trincomalee, also gave some lands to Tamil families in the past to avoid the criticism of Sinhala Only policy in settlement schemes. The division, sandwiched between Moothoor and Eachchilam-pattai divisions, was carved out of the traditional Tamil homeland. It is a dominant Sinhala division today. However, some settlements continue to be Tamil areas along the southern border of Moothoor division. The older generation of Eelam Tamil landowners who want to transfer their lands to their children are facing the dilemma of spending more money to retain their lands or leaving the fate of their properties at the hands of the Sinhala land officials in Seruvila, Tamil civil officials in Moothoor said.

The old grandparents and parents who want to transfer their properties to their sons and daughters in Seruvila division are facing the dilemma, particularly those from 6th Colony, 3rd colony, Lingapuram, Thangka-nakar, Sivapuram and Uppooral.

Also, some families within the administrative division of Moothoor are also in possession of agricultural lands that come under the bordering division of Seruvila.

Many of these land-owners who are in their seventies and eighties of age find it difficult to get their land rights transferred to the names of their sons and daughters.

The pattern of discrimination is systemic and institutional, they said.

Sinhala land officials often demand 50,000 to 75,000 rupees of ransom, knowing that the poverty-stricken people do not afford such money and the lands that are not transferred before the owners perish get transferred to Sinhala colonisers.

When the people started to demand their rights, the Sinhala officials reply by saying that they have not received green signal for their papers from their hierarchy.

The Tamil officials in Moothoor said the fault is also on the side of the Tamil politicians who conveniently ignore the concerns of the poverty-stricken Tamil families in remote areas.

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