President settles Kalmunai housing dispute

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapakse assured via a satellite transmission to take prompt steps to solve the housing problem of more than 100 families who were displaced due to the tsunami and were demonstrating opposite the Kalmunai Divisional Secretariat during the past few days.
Following a discussion the protesting demonstrators had with President over the satellite, the solutions as required by the crowd were agreed upon. They then gave up the agitation. Accordingly, the President directed the authorities to acquire a further five acres of land in addition to the five acres already reclaimed to expand the housing project.

Tsunami bribery probe in East

COLOMBO: The Commission to Investigate Allegations on Bribery and Corruption will expedite the hearing of complaints from tsunami affected people in Batticaloa and Ampara districts against corrupt Government officers.
Director Investigations of the Bribery Commission SP Neville Guruge told the Daily News that Commission officials headed by its Chairman Justice Ameer Ismail and Secretary P.A. Abeysinghe toured the Tsunami hit Batticaloa and Ampara districts from February 26.

Oxfam calls for appropriate land for tsunami survivors
As the UN special envoy Bill Clinton prepares to meet Governments of Sri Lanka and Indonesia, Oxfam International urged the authorities to provide more appropriate land for the construction of permanent shelter, an Oxfam news release said.
The call comes on the day (Tuesday) that Clinton arrives in Sri Lanka and the day before he goes to Indonesia to see the recovery effort. Although thousands of permanent houses have already been built in both countries, one of the major factors holding up progress is that Governments have not yet got policies in place to ensure appropriate new land is given to all those who lost theirs to the tsunami.
 
 
Progress in Govt's tsunami recovery efforts : Premier
The 'Report on Tsunami People's Consultations', a document reflecting the views, needs and aspirations of Sri Lankans affected by the tsunami was launched on Thursday.
The report is based on a three month consultation process carried out by the Disaster Relief Monitoring Unit (DRMU) of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in tsunami affected areas with the assistance of the United Nations Development

Tsunami housing - a vexed issue

 The survey was conducted among community leaders representing the tsunami affected communities in the South and the East. Six Focus Groups of community leaders with direct experience with the tsunami devastation at the relief and reconstruction stage participated in the survey. In the South, the survey was conducted at Koggala, Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa while in the East, the interviews were done at Vakrai, Kathankudy and Kaluwachikudy.