TNA Claims Moves To Change North Demography
By Maryam Azwer
TNA MP Suresh Premachandran has yet again charged that the government is trying to deliberately change the demography of the North.
He said that one example of this lies in the Weli Oya area, which was initially under the Mullaitivu district, but had been brought under the control of the Anuradhapura administration around twenty years ago.
“In Tamil, we call that area Manal Aru. In that period, the village was colonized by a Sinhala population of about 9,000,” said Premachandran.
He said that Weli Oya was later, a few months ago, brought under the Mullaitivu district once again.
“The demographic pattern of the Mullaitivu district has changed, with 9,000 Sinhalese brought under Mullaitivu overnight,” he said. He said that something similar had taken place in a village in Vavuniya, where nearly 600 Sinhalese had supposedly been settled in an area that had previously been paddy land cultivated by Tamils.
Even apart from these issues, he said, the population numbers in the North had reduced significantly. Premachandran said that this was because “several thousands were killed during the war, and also, several thousands have gone abroad.”
Waht the TNA or any other party members should remember is that Sri Lanka is a single sovereign country and there is no part specifically declared to have only one group. If Tamils and Muslims in their majorities can live in other parts of the country, why can’t Singhalese be settled in North or in East? What is wrong with it? They are the originals of this country called Sri Lanka and they are the majority. Like British, French, Germans, Italians, Russians, Chinese , Japanese etc.. are the majority and there is no special areas demarcated for minorities (Tamils, Singhalese, Turks, Africans etc.,) living in these countries.