Land Minister's Trinco visit cancelled, mobile service called off

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 July 2003, 21:07 GMT]
A four-day mobile service scheduled to be inaugurated at the Trincomalee district secretariat Saturday morning by the Lands Minister of SriLanka, Dr..Rajitha Senaratne, was called off at the last minute as a one-day hartal was observed in the eastern port town the same day, sources said.

Minister Senaratne cancelled his Trincomalee visit without fixing a new date, district secretariat sources said.

The Land Ministry organized the four-day mobile to solve land related problems faced by the villagers in the Trincomalee district. The first day mobile service was to be held Saturday. Mobile services were also to be held at Nilaveli, Chenaiyoor and Eachilampathu on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday respectively.

All arrangements were made by the Trincomalee district secretariat to hold the mobile service and media persons from Colombo were also brought down to Trincomalee Saturday morning to cover the minister's visit. When the Minister learnt that Tamil groups in Trincomalee had organized a hartal condemning the renewal of cordon and search operation by the security forces and unlawful arrests of Tamil civilians, he immediately cancelled his visit to eastern port town, political sources said.

However, a large number of Sinhalese villagers and a handful of Tamils gathered at the district land office with their land related problems. The Government Agent, Mr.N.H.K.Nelumdeniya, asked them to hand over their complaints to respective officials as the Minister had cancelled his Trincomalee visit and the mobile service until further notice, secretariat sources said.