Tsunami donations that never reached the people

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Tsunami was the greatest national disaster faced by the country, it ripped apart families and destroyed complete settlements. It also gave all Sri Lankans it's best opportunity after independence to come together regardless of class, creed or ethnicity. However, the barbaric politics of Sri Lanka took steps to ensure that many of the opportunities that came about as a result of this tragedy to create a more civilized and united country, were closed off forever. A clear example of such an act is a village, located in the Addalachchenai Divisional Secretariat in Norochcholai. The single largest donation of tsunami relief funds, which originated from Saudi Arabia, was used to construct a village on 47 acres of land belonging to the Hingurana Sugar factory. The responsibility of turning this beautiful village consisting of 502 houses, 2 schools, and a hospital, into a human settlement, fell on the shoulders of the Ampara District Secretary. By the time construction work on this village was complete, most of the people who were affected by the tsunami had been resettled. As a result, Sri Lanka's barbaric political practices seeped into the effort of turning this village into a human settlement. It has been nine years since the supreme court issued a ruling which resolved the differences caused by political forces. In three more days Sri Lanka will remember the lives lost as a result of the boxing day tsunami, in a backdrop where the Ampara district secretary has forgotten, for the past nine years, to implement a verdict issued by the Supreme Court. The supreme court ruling states that the houses of this village must be distributed among the homeless people of the district in accordance with the ratio of ethnicities living in the district. The supreme court also ordered the district secretary to pay a sum of Rs 150,000 in legal fees to the individual who filed the fundamental rights petition that led to the verdict, however, this too is yet to be fulfilled. As we remember the tragic Tsunami, we hope that the people responsible understands the losses being caused by the lack of action of the officials.