Colombo government has recently given instructions to Ea’raavoor Urban Council chairman Ali Zahir Mowlana to bring 7 Tamil villages under his administration using the Urban Council, informed sources told reporters in Batticaloa. The villages Aa’rumukaththaan-kudiyiruppu, Tha’lavaay, Chavukkadi, Mayilampaave’li and wards No 1, 4 and 5 in the Ea’raavoor under the Ea’raavoor Chengkaladi Piratheasa Chapai (PS) division are to be brought under the civil administration of Era’voor UC, which is predominantly inhabited by Muslims. Mr. Ali Zahir Mowlana is taking steps to settle Muslim families in the lands belong to Tamil people in these villages, creating division among the Tamil speaking people of the district, civil sources in Ea’raavoor said.
108 Tamil families, who were uprooted from Ward 4 of Ea’raavoor following clashes between Tamils and Muslims in the year of 1985, have been unable to return home.
According to the civil sources in Ea’raavoor, the UC chairman has taken steps to acquire ten pieces of lands that were owned by Tamils to construct of a Technical College despite repeated appeals by a group of uprooted Tamil families to make arrangement for them to resettle in their lands in Wards 4 and 5 in Ea’raavoor to the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council and Resettlement Deputy Minister.
Affected Tamil families complain that even the Government Agent of the Batticaloa district and the Divisional Secretary have been unable to respond to their appeals.
The SL Police has occupied some lands of Tamil families and the roads that lead to those lands also remain blocked.
Already, some lands of Tamils have been taken over by the Chairman of the Ea’raavoor UC.
Mr. Moulana has constructed a Muslim Mosque and an Arabic School.
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