In the face of opposition from land rights activists, including lawmakers from the North and East, the Sri Lankan government has been forced to withdraw a gazette notification issued two months ago, aimed at acquiring nearly six thousand acres of land in four coastal districts in the north.
Proving land ownership has become a challenge in the region due to the devastation by the nearly three decades long civil war.
In an emergency meeting summoned by the Prime Minister, parliamentarians from North and East have vehemently demanded that Gazette No. 2430, issued on Friday, March 28, 2025, be revoked.
The Ministry of Lands confirmed that the gazette notification was revoked on 26.05.2025.
The gazette notification issued by the Department of Land Title Settlement had warned that if the ownership of 5941 acres listed in its schedules was not confirmed within three months, such land would be taken over by the state.
The gazette had earmarked 5941 acres of land in all the coastal districts of the Northern Province. Only landlocked Vavuniya was excluded. 1703 acres in Mullaitivu District, 3669 in Jaffna District, 515 in Kilinochchi District and 54 in Mannar District were listed.
With the Tamil people in the area expressing fear that the government was trying to acquire their land, Tamil representatives and land rights activists in the area had called for the immediate withdrawal of the gazette notification.
In the face of the strong opposition, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, had convened a meeting with MPs from North and East to Committee Room No. 1 of Parliament on May 23, with the participation of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation KD Lal Kantha and government officials.
During the meeting, she had repeatedly said that the government had no intention of taking over the lands of the people of the North and East, and the government’s aim was to promptly transfer the land to the people who have the ownership.
The government’s land settlement program has been heavily criticized at the meeting by the opposition MPs as a ‘flawed process’.
Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has questioned the intention of the government deliberately targeting land in only the coastal areas.
Opposition members from the North and East expressed fear that the enactment of the gazette would pave the way to legalize military ownership of vast areas of private land under occupation already.
“Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya stated that the government agrees that land ownership should be given to the people with legal confirmations by introducing a proper methodology to dispel public doubts, and that the government has no need to acquire people’s lands in any way,” read an announcement issued by the Prime Minister’s Media Division.
However, both Ministers Ramalingam Chandrasekar and Arun Hemachandran, who participated in the discussion representing the North and the East, were clueless how the controversial gazette notification was issued.
The discussion was also attended by Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation Susil Ranasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation D.P. Wickramasinghe, Additional Solicitor General Vikum de Abrew, Secretary to the Prime Minister Pradeep Saputhanthri and officials representing state institutions including the Land Registration Department, the Survey Department, and government agents.
Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation D.P. Wickramasinghe told journalists on Tuesday (27) that the Gazette No. 2430 issued by the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on Friday, March 28, 2025, was revoked on May 26.
Earlier, on May 03, General Secretary of the Ilangai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), President’s Counsel M. A. Sumanthiran, in a letter in English to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, had informed that this law, which is being used by the present government to acquire lands in the North, was legislated by the British government to seize the people’s lands.
“As you are aware, this ordinance was enacted during colonial days by the British government to take away lands which our people had used as their own for centuries but who had no clear formal titles to them.”
While informing the President that the people who have been displaced countless times over the past half century have not yet been resettled on their lands, the former Tamil People’s Representative had explained why it is not appropriate to apply this law under the current circumstances.
On May 27, Sumanthiran has expressed his gratitude to President Dissanayake on social media for the cancellation of the gazette notification.
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