Do not link Indian housing project with disaster relief, Arullsamy urges Govt.

Colombo, January 11 (Daily Mirror) - Vice President of the Democratic People’s Front and Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Barath Arullsamy has called on the government to assume full responsibility for providing disaster relief housing to plantation families urging authorities not to merge such efforts with the Indian Housing Project.

Speaking to the media today, Arullsamy welcomed President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s launch of a Rs. 5 million housing programme but warned that the Malaiyaga community continues to be excluded from state-funded disaster relief initiatives.

“While we appreciate the President’s initiative as a positive step, the situation in the plantation sector remains dire. Many families are still living in temporary shelters, with no land identified for resettlement, forcing them to return to disaster-prone areas,” he said.

Arullsamy rejected claims that the lack of land is due to plantation companies, stating that such arguments are unacceptable. He noted that these lands fall under the Crown Lands Ordinance and that plantation companies are merely lessees.

“With Emergency Regulation 8 currently in force, the government has the authority to immediately take possession of land for disaster relief. This is not a legal issue—it is a matter of political will,” he added.

He said TPA Leader and MP Mano Ganesan raised the issue in Parliament yesterday and cautioned the government against attempting to combine the Indian Housing Project with disaster relief programmes.

Clarifying the origins of the Indian Housing Project, Arullsamy said it was a TPA initiative introduced during the Good Governance administration, under which 4,000 houses were built and a further 10,000 secured during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka. Of this allocation, 1,300 houses were launched under the Bharat–Lanka Housing Project.

He stressed that the Indian Housing Project was intended to eliminate line-room housing as a long-term development goal and should not be used to compensate for the State’s failure to provide disaster relief.

“If the two programmes are kept separate, coverage will be broader. The government can provide Rs. 5 million houses for disaster victims, while the Indian project continues to address line-room housing. We demand that the Rs. 5 million housing grant be extended to our people and that safe land be provided immediately,” Arullsamy said questioning whether Malaiyaga Tamils are being treated as equal citizens of Sri Lanka.