Sinhala Death/ Prison Villages had 120,000 Tamil Children and 3000 Tamil Teachers...!!!

How the IDPs were resettled
Lakshmi de Silva

[Resettlement effort]

* De-mining operations cost US$ 79 million.

* It cleaned 529,943,909 square metres.

* The Presidential Task Force launched a 180 day development program

* Relief villages were built in two weeks.

* They sheltered 287,000

*Textile and clothing for IDPs cost Rs. 12 million.

* Welfare villages had 120,000 children and 3000 teachers

The massive infrastructure development in the Northern areas where the Internally Displaced Persons were resettled was in place before those people went back to their villages. The de-mining operations alone had cost 79 million US Dollars to clear 529,943,909 square metres. The whole exercise was a gigantic humanitarian operation especially looking after the IDPs for the first time Northern Province Governor G.A. Chandrasiri said at a press briefing in Colombo yesterday.

The Presidential Task Force implementing the 180 day rapid infrastructure and economic development program Vadikkin Vasantham was led by Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa MP first built the relief villages for IDPs in two weeks.

It sheltered 287,000 providing them meals as soon as they came fleeing from the terrorist clutches, he said. The massive effort and coordination, planning, resources and personnel for this humanitarian operation was not known to the public at large but the President had directed that every official and member of the government should give their cooperation towards helping the IDPs.

Textiles and clothing provided for the IDPs cost Rs. 12 million, the Governor noted. Until the measures to resettle them were completed, the IDP children were given education from pre-school to GCE Advanced Level without losing a single day of their school education providing them with school books, school uniforms and educational aid and sufficient teachers.

There were 120,000 children and 3,000 teachers among the IDPs who were employed to teach the children, the Governor said.

The medical services were provided by 130 doctors who worked in rotation and five ambulances were made available to the IDP villages by the Presidential Task Force and the bed strength of the hospitals in the surrounding areas was also increased. At the Cheddikulam base hospital alone 228,252 were treated as most IDPs trekked for days to arrive at the government administered areas.

While the IDPs were waiting to be resettled, the able bodied people were given vocational training, like masonry,carpentry, aluminum and also advice in home gardening so that when they went back to their villages they would have skills to restart their livelihoods, he said.

The Governor Chandrasiri said the garbage cleared per day at the IDP villages was 83 tons and 283,586 litres of gully water had to be removed daily. And 186,000 litres of water had to be supplied daily.

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