Sunday, July 13, 2008

East like phoenix rises from ashes

Snarling through the newly built bund, the dust and heat greet us showing the signs of the rustic life of an area always burdened with hardships.With no mercy, the sun bakes the ‘soil as well as the skin’.

The embarkment built with fresh red soil to prevent flooding which in undates the entire area with more than 15 feet under water. The sluice gates was the landmark of a humanitarian mission to liberate the fertile Eastern province, where thousands of Tamils were held as human shields, from the paws of the LTTE.

Mavil Aru

Despite the scorching sun the tractor drivers and labourers were busy levelling new bund, a stretch of over three kilometres, happy with the Ministry of Nation Building for giving them job opportunities.

“This is the first time that we have cultivated large acreage of paddy lands after liberation of the East. The LTTE terrorists while holding the Mavil Aru anicut, some farmers were chased away and some were killed. We abandoned these lands until the military captured and restored peace”, says H.M. Tikiri Banda, a paddy farmer in Mavil Aru since 1978.

Read more,
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/07/13/sec08.asp

No comments: