Govt committed to solve ethnic issue: PM

A total of 500 title deeds were issued recently to the plantation worker community and another 2,000 title deeds will be issued before the end of this year.

"Earlier, they were granted citizenship under the Sirimavo - Shasthri Pact. Now they are kept on equal status with other citizens,” said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

He was addressing the ceremony to distribute title deeds, organized by the Hill Country New Villages and Community Development Ministry, under the theme 'Our house in our land,' at Hatton Dunbar Grounds, recently.

The Prime Minister said some politicians were boasting for 20 to 30 years that they will be giving lands and houses to plantation workers, but they gave nothing. Instead there was more cheating.

"The housing idea for the plantation community was first mooted when I was a Minister under the late Presidents R. Premadasa and Wijetunga, and the late S. Thondaman was assigned with some Ministerial portfolios to carry out this task. However, it came to a standstill when the then government was defeated. Now we are able to carry out this task as we are voted to power. As our estate housing project is progressing, Indian Premier Narendra Modi during his visit to Sri Lanka, pledged to grant aid to the tune of Rs. 86 billion worth 10,000 houses to the hill country population.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said, "now the housing problem is over. Next we focus on education. There are schools available for the plantation community, but they lack Advanced Level education.

Therefore, we have appointed V. Radhakrishnan as the State Minister of Education to fill this gap.

With regard to the ethnic issue, Premier Wickremesinghe said, "the war is over, and the people elected Maithripala Sirisena as the President in January 2015 with a mandate to rebuild the country. But there is no development without peace. We as Sri Lankans have to unite as one. The Tamil National Alliance have come forward for peace building for the first time. They wanted a political solution for their demands.

An Interim Report prepared by the Steering Committee was forwarded to Parliament for review. A settlement is possible within a unitary state. The people gave us a mandate to final a solution to the ethnic issue. We are bound to do that," he said.

"United we stand, divided we fall. This country belongs to everyone, whether it is Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher," he said.

"The people are united, the SLFP and UNP are united. The Sinhalese, Tamil, the Muslims and Burghers are united. But Mahinda Rajapaksa and G. L. Peiris are creating false propaganda to derail this unity by opposing solutions," he stressed.

The ceremony was presided by Minister P. Digambaram and attended by Parliamentary Reforms and Lands Minister Gayantha Karunathillake, Education State Minister V. Radhakrishnan, Ministry Secretaries, Parliamentarians M. Thilayaraj, Vadivel Suresh, Velu Kumar, Provincial Councillors and others.