Farmers in Suriyapura, Samagipura, Jayathipura, Sinhawewa, Van Ela and Kantale had cultivated around 2,000 acres of paddy land for over 28 years even though they faced threats from the terrorists. They had no irrigation facilities and they grew their crops with rainwater, but today they are facing the threat of losing their paddy lands under the Negenhira Navodya programme that the Mahaveli Authority was implementing in the Tricomalee District, JVP parliamentarian N. W. M. Jayantha Wijesekara told The Island yesterday (20).

He said there were 460 farmers who had been cultivating these lands during the past three decades, even under the terrorist threats. They did so on their own and during that time there were no Mahaveli officials or others who went to assist them. But today, after the liberation of the East from the terrorists, these farmers are being harassed by the officials and police and were taken before Courts, Wijesekara said.

The Negenahira Navodaya, Eastern Province reawakening programme should benefit the people of the province who had cultivated paddy for one crop season using rainwater. In 2004 the Janaranjana reservoir was built to enable them to grow paddy during both crop seasons but their paddy lands were to be handed over to the private sector by the Mahaveli Authority, now that the terrorists were defeated by the armed forces, he said.