[TamilNet] 2,500 acres of lands in Mangka'la Aaru, located along Chengkaladi-Badulla A-5 road, a border village of Batticaloa district, are to be sold to Sinhala businessmen and to foreign investors, informed sources in Paduvaankarai told TamilNet. SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Colombo government has recently taken steps to survey the lands through its deputy minister and paramilitary operative Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan. A team of SL government officials from Colombo are on the ground conducting surveying and demarcating the lands in question for the last one week, the villagers said.
The strategic location of Mangka'la Aa'ru has been given a new name, “Mangala-gama”, by the occupying SL military the villagers told TamilNet.
Earlier, before the Paduvaankarai area fell, Jeyanthan Brigade of the LTTE had a military base in the lands that are now being appropriated by the SL state in Mangka'la Aa'ru.
Meanwhile, pasture lands in Thevulaa'la Ku'lam in Paddippazhai DS division are encroached by Sinhalese, the villagers complain.
These encroachers frequently fire at cattle left in these lands. Encroachers are also stealing the cattle, according to Tamil dairy farmers.
TN
