The Hon. Ramalingam Chandrasekar - Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources

¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member. The motion is important. In Sri Lanka, land is not a trivial matter; for Tamils, land is integral to life. Our President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, clearly assured that people’s livelihoods would not be harmed.

¶ 02 We all know land disputes must be resolved. On this Gazette, we believe all Members—Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim—should reach consensus. Since 1931, mechanisms were set up to resolve land disputes, followed in 1950 by Settlement Boards; yet issues persist nationwide. The State and people both need a proper process to determine whether lands are public or private, identify and demarcate them. This is that kind of exercise, nothing else.

¶ 03 Hon. Ponnambalam knows well the severity of land disputes in the North; Hon. Shritharan has worked tirelessly on it. Whatever our political differences, we acknowledge the disputes and the suspicion they evoke due to past politics. In Jaffna our party is now a principal force, and we won Ambalavanpokkanai in Mullivaikkal at the last local polls. We are acting to resolve disputes and regularize, not to seize or expropriate people’s lands.