The Hon. M.S. Abthul Wazeeth

¶ 01 Question to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation:

¶ 02 (a) Will he inform this House—

¶ 03 (i) whether he is aware that preliminary steps had been taken by the previous Government to release to the relevant parties their ancestral lands in the Divisional Secretaries’ Divisions of the Ampara District including the Pottuvil Divisional Secretary’s Division, which were under cultivation even in the 1990s and were taken over by the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Department of Forest Conservation;

¶ 04 (ii) if so, whether steps will be taken to release the paddy lands to the relevant persons in the villages of Amawattuwan, Begamam, Palliyadiwattai, Kirankowai, Palaiyadiwattai, Kummaveli, Kattumaddu and Thukkollai, which had been cultivated by them;

¶ 05 (iii) whether steps will be taken thereby to get the contribution of those individuals to increase the paddy production in Sri Lanka; and

¶ 06 (iv) whether steps will be taken to provide facilities such as access roads, irrigation channels, drainage systems, culverts and small bridges for the above-mentioned paddy lands?

¶ 07 (b) If not, why?