The Valikamam North Pradeshiya Sabha will proceed with action to demolish a Sri Lankan military hospital being constructed in Vasavilan without the local authority's approval, President's Counsel and former parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran has said, in the latest turn in a dispute over the military's construction of permanent installations on occupied Tamil land.
Sumanthiran said the military is building the hospital on privately owned land that falls within the jurisdiction of the Valikamam North Pradeshiya Sabha, without obtaining the council's required permission.
The land belongs to a local Tamil family, seized during the armed conflict and never returned. Tamil politicians who inspected the site, including Sumanthiran, observed that the construction lies just outside the boundary of the designated High Security Zone, which they said amounted to the military extending its footprint onto civilian land under a new pretext rather than winding down its presence. The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi had earlier pledged to take legal action over the construction.
The military has relied on a gazette notification issued in 2013, under which land in the area was acquired for military purposes, to justify the construction. Local residents have continued to protest, demanding that the 2013 gazette be withdrawn and their land released.
Sumanthiran said that, regardless of the acquisition, any new building constructed within the local authority's area requires approval from the relevant local council.
He said the Valikamam North Pradeshiya Sabha had formally notified the military to halt construction because the necessary approvals had not been obtained. Despite those notices, construction of the military hospital has continued, he said.
Sumanthiran said that if the military fails to comply with the notices issued by the Valikamam North Pradeshiya Sabha, the local authority has the legal power to demolish buildings constructed without the required approval, and will proceed with action to remove the unauthorised structure.
More than 6,000 families from Valikamam North remain displaced, with over 2,700 acres still held by the military under the