For more than 135,000 Muslims, who were forcibly
evicted from the North by LTTE terrorists 17 years ago, now
living in welfare centres run by the State in the Puttalam,
Anuradhapura and Kurunegala districts, there is very little hope
of returning to their original homes, Assistant Director
Secretariat for Northern Displaced Muslims, Puttalam Kachcheri
S. Naushad told The Island on Thursday (14).
Naushad is also the Chairman Citizens’ Committee
for the Forcible Evicted Muslims of the North.
Currently, the number of Muslims evicted by the
LTTE, living in Puttalam welfare centres is 15,418 families with
63,135 members. They are housed in 162 camps with the minimum
facilities for living, poor housing, water supply and sanitary
conditions.
Naushad said all past governments had neglected
the rehabilitation of these people, upgrade their standards of
living, employment opportunities and avenues of income other
than the meager dole of 1,260 rupees from 1990, provided in
collaboration with the World Food Programme. But President
Rajapakse had given approval to set up a special secretariat for
the evicted Muslims and now all their data problems and plans
for improving their standards of living and housing are handled
by the Secretariat.
Minister for Resettlement and Disaster Relief
Service Rishad Bathiutheen, himself a forcibly evicted Muslim
from the Wanni District 17 years ago, is taking steps to improve
the lot of these evicted Muslims and there is a visible
improvement in their education, health services and community
and religious services after he was appointed minister majority
of the evicted Muslims of Puttalam told The Island.
