The Hon. Kathiravelu Shanmugam Kugathasan

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, rice price hikes are not only due to floods, droughts, or hoarding, but also actions of government departments—chiefly the Department of Archaeology. In Trincomalee District, long-cultivated paddy lands are being gazetted as archaeological sites, barring cultivation.

¶ 02 Within the first nine days of this year alone, the Department declared over 380 acres of cultivated paddy in Vattavan, Eachchilampattu DS Division, belonging to 224 farmers, as archaeological. Similar actions in Kuchchaveli GS areas since 1985; even a historic rice granary (Sathaik Kalanjiyam) area was included. Earlier, 1,000 acres in Thennamaravadi/Thiriyai with British-era grants and over 150 years of cultivation were taken over, and 1,994 acres across several GS divisions in Kuchchaveli were boundary-marked and seized.

¶ 03 Temples and their surrounding agricultural lands—Rajavandan Malai Murugan, Matthalamalai Murugan, Kiliveddy Sri Muthumari Amman, Thirumangalai, Ilankaiturai Mugathuwaram Periyasamy, Kalladi Sri Malai Neeliyamman, Thennamaravadi Kandasamy, Chembimalai Sivan, Thiriyai Valathamalaiyadi Nagathambiran—are being targeted, along with lands around them.

¶ 04 Beyond Archaeology, the Defence Ministry, Forest Department, and the Port Authority are also taking over cultivation lands, preventing agriculture, severely reducing Trincomalee’s rice output and harming the country. I urge redress. Thank you.