101 Villages in NE selected for NIAP development

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 February 2003, 12:45 GMT]
The World Bank assisted North East Irrigation and Agriculture Project (NIAP) officials said that under the 2003 program for renovating irrigation tanks in NorthEast, 101 villages have been selected in districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee and Batticaloa where implementation activities will begin in March, sources in Vavuniya said.

NIAP has signed agreements with non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) FORUT, Seva Lanka, Village Development Organization and Sareeram which will implement the projects for NIAP. Officials of these NGOs and Mr.S.Rangarajan, the Primary Secretary North East Province on behalf of NIAP participated in the sign-off of the agreements, sources said.

In Vavuniya district Seva Lanka is given responsibility to undertake rehabilitation efforts in 34 villages, Village development Organization 5 villages, FORUT 5 villages, NIAP officials said.

In Mannar Seva Lanka is to work in 7 villages and Village Development Organization is given authority to work in 2 villages.

In Trincomalee Seva Lanka will be the sole implementing organization in all 18 selected villages.

In Batticaloa district, in 20 selected villages implementation responsibility for NIAP projectes is vested with Sareeram organization and projects in other 10 selected villages will be carried out by Seva Lanka, NIAP officials said.

Officials added that the focus villages for NIAP projects were selected on recommendations by the Government Agents (GAs) of the respective districts.

FORUT, Campaign for Development and Solidarity, a Norwegian NGO, has been engaged in development cooperation in Sri Lanka and in several other South Asian countries and its main office is situated in the little town of Gjøvik in the southeastern part of Norway. FORUT receives a considerable sum of money from the Norwegian Government and from Norwegian and foreign partners, according FORUT's website.