The Hon. Sivagnanam Shritharan

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, during today’s debate on the Social Security Contribution Levy (Amendment) Bill, the Rules under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act, and two other regulations, I wish to place on record an important matter.

¶ 02 Even after the NPP Government assumed office, Tamil university students and Tamil officials have been subjected to various pressures and hardships. On 16 March 2026, at the University of Jaffna, the Arts Faculty Students’ Union President, Dharmalingam Jathursan, the Senior Students’ Union President, Thayaparan Lajitharan, A. Abishek, and several other students were summoned to the Jaffna District Crimes Prevention Division and subjected to intense questioning. University students must be able to freely express their views and their community’s concerns. These actions show the Government is using intimidation to suppress those rights. We strongly condemn this. I submit to the Chair the letter related to the summons issued to these students.

¶ 03 Next, Ms. Dayananthan Jayasithira, a member of the Administrative Committee of our ITAK Kilinochchi branch, has been summoned today to the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Division in Colombo at 10.00 a.m. She has been summoned and questioned more than three times, including frequently by Kilinochchi Police. A mother of grown children, she is repeatedly subjected to interrogation by TID, Police and military when she engages in her work and in the Tamil national cause. She is prevented from exercising her fundamental rights. She was summoned to Colombo three times and has been questioned multiple times in Kilinochchi; again today at 10 a.m. to Colombo. I submit a copy of that letter to the Chair.

¶ 04 Hon. Deputy Speaker, on 2 April this month, in five villages under the Pachchilaipalli Divisional Secretariat Division, Iyakkachchi area of Kilinochchi District, land was being illegally surveyed under a scheme called “Oorvanikanpathu.” These are ancestral lands—held over six to seven generations—with a Muthumari Amman Temple, a public hall, a preschool, and land belonging to the Sivabhoomi Trust. Due to the 1990 displacement, and again in 2006, people left; after 2006, the Army’s Corps of Engineers occupied the area. Now they are attempting to illegally survey about 30 acres to take over as their own.

¶ 05 As I said, on 2 April, at the request of the Divisional Secretary, the Land Survey Department attempted to survey and hand over this land to the Army. The people and political leaders who gathered there stopped this completely; the officers who came for surveying were sent back. The people pleaded: “This 4th (Battalion) Electrical and Mechanical Engineers camp stands on our ancestral land! Please do not survey it! Give us back our own land!” As a Member of Parliament, I spoke to the Government Agent and the Divisional Secretary, after which the surveying was halted. I submit to the Chair a letter signed by 21 persons regarding this land matter.

¶ 06 Specifically, Murugesu Selvarasa, Mayilvaganam Balachandran, Thambaiya Vallipuram, Chandrarupan Udhayakala, Markandu Ponnamma, Kandiban Padmavathy, Prakash Subathra, Sellappa Thiagarasa, Bhaskaran Ketheeswari, Dushyandan Sujeeba, Sivasithamparam Logini, Kamalavathy Selvarasa, Kanagaratnam Maheswari, Murugesu Yogarani, Senthilselvan Menakai, Dharmalingam Dasan, and others from Oorvanikanpathu village have clearly stated in their letter that this is their ancestral land. I submit the list to the Chair.

¶ 07 Hon. Deputy Speaker, in a country without war, why is this Government forcibly surveying and grabbing people’s private lands before their very eyes with the presence of the military and police? This is cruel. If a previous Government began this, why can you not immediately release these 30 acres?

¶ 08 The people’s suffering is severe. Why has this country still not reformed? Beyond the past leaders’ mistakes and the wars waged on the Tamil people, today they are still kept on the streets, their lands not released, and being robbed. Imagine the mental state of a landowner when their land is measured and seized before their eyes. Please understand their plight.

¶ 09 Hon. Member, your time is up.

¶ 10 Hon. Deputy Speaker, please grant me one minute.

¶ 11 During your Government too, you interrogate university students; you summon activists fighting for political rights to Colombo, Kilinochchi and Jaffna; you seize people’s lands by forcibly surveying them. Where is the justice? When will these people get justice? Under which Government? You speak of “equal rights for all” and promise your manifesto. If you fail to respect people’s rights, to understand and shape public sentiment properly, and to reflect goodwill, you will face a collapse far worse than the current global-war-induced poverty and economic downturn. You have a long way to go. Even this Government has not taken even a small step towards resolving the Tamil national question—the ethnic problem of this land. Therefore I say: the path to peace and reconciliation remains long and arduous. First think of that and open the way; only by understanding people’s sentiments can you build a dignified country uniting the communities. I conclude.