The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, this is the first Question Time of this new Parliament. I have no objection to the Hon. Deputy Minister answering this. He is capable, and there is no personal issue between us. However, since this is a matter that requires Cabinet-level resolution, it would have been more appropriate if the Cabinet Minister had answered.

¶ 02 Although this question cites Mailathamadu in Batticaloa, the grazing-land problem exists across all districts of the North and East. Some tried to politicize it. It escalated into inter-ethnic tensions with even some religious leaders staging protests and threatening violence against people like me. In Batticaloa alone—Mailathamadu, Keviliyamadu, Unnichchai, Karuvachcholai—and also in Ampara’s Vattamadu and in Trincomalee—this problem persists. The durable solution is to gazette these as grazing lands. Efforts have been ongoing since 2010.

¶ 03 When discussing with officials, each points elsewhere—“this is Forest,” Forest says “this is Mahaweli,” and both say “this is Divisional Secretariat or State land.” Taking Mailathamadu as example, there are 26,000 acres suitable for grazing. At the start of Maha season, initial coordination meetings each year have repeatedly requested to move cattle there. We had progressed matters in the last Government to gazette these lands as grazing. Then, the Government agreed to gazette 3,000 acres; we requested 6,000 acres for Mailathamadu alone.

¶ 04 My first question: are we restarting from scratch or continuing from the point previously reached?