The government has decided to provide 1000 acres of fertile agricultural lands and inputs for agriculture purposes to youths in the IDP Relief Villages in Vavuniya to enable them to be motivated towards engaging in agriculture, Presidential Secretariat sources said yesterday. "This would prevent them from just idling" sources further said.

This decision was arrived at by the Minister of Agrarian Services Hemakumara Nanayakara following his visit to IDP Relief Villages in Vavuniya including Kadirgamapuram earlier this month.

The Minister found hundreds of youths idling aimlessly at welfare villages and said "as a responsible Government we should take care of them" and quoting an idiom he said that idle minds are the devils’ workshops".

Following discussions with the Senior Presidential advisor MP Basil Rajapaksa the Minister had instructed the Commissioner of Agrarian Services Ravindra Hewawitharna to identify without delay 1,000 acres of fertile land adjoining Kadirgamapuram Relief Village.

Commissioner of Agrarian Services Hewawithana was in Kandy to participate in the ‘Food week" which had been declared by the Government under the ‘Api Wawamu Rata Nagamu’ programme.

Despite his busy schedule he told the The Island that the Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services in Vavuniya Sellathurai Paranavanathan was entrusted with the task of identifying the land while the government would provide all the inputs such as plants, seedlings, fertilizer and agricultural machinery to the youths to engage themselves profitably and productively.

He said that a report had been submitted to Minister Hemakumara Nanayakkara that about thousand acres of abandoned agricultural land had been identified about two to three kilometers from the Kadirgamapuram relief Village but providing water to the land needed construction of an anicut which seemed to be a costly exercise as this cultivation would only be a temporary exercise. Further, the water from Kallaru stream is presently used by the IDPs for bathing purposes.