It has been accused that the Department of Forest Conservation is appropriating the Pools and Paddy Lands in Mannar.
People of Naanaattaan, who stated that the Deputy Commissioner of Agrarian Development and Agrarian Development Centers did not either question in this regard or did not attempt to halt this appropriation, asked the officials and parliamentarians to halt the grabbing of pools and paddy lands by the Department of Forest Conservation.
Naanaattaan has the smallest area among the five Divisional Secretariats in the Mannar District. Most of the lands in the Naanaattaan Divisional Secretariat are paddy lands and even there are no gracing lands for the cattle.
As the security measures were tightened in that area by blocking the A-14 road during the war time, people of this area had been living at the neighboring villages. Consequently, the agricultural activities of these people got completely affected there. People got resettled once the war brought to an end.
The paddy lands could not be identified since the demarcated boundaries of the paddy lands were smashed out. Department of Forest Conservation is demarcating the boundaries for the paddy lands there. Many small pools including Sinnathooththaakkuli, Periyathooththaakkuli and Vempadikkulam, which the Department of Agrarian Development, are situated in the area in which the boundary of the lands are being demarcated by the Department of Forest Conservation.
But, either the Murungan Agrarian Center or Deputy Commissioner of Agrarian Development did not take any actions to protect these lands. The people of this area emphasized that the parliamentarians should stop the appropriation of the lands by the Department of Forest Conservation.
In this area, cultivation is taken place in 359 acres of lands whereas no cultivation is taken place in more than 150 acres of paddy lands due to drought.
