Vanni District MP T. Ravikaran delivered a scathing address in Parliament this week, condemning the Sri Lankan government’s latest efforts to seize thousands of acres of land across the Northern Province.
Ravikaran denounced a recently issued Gazette notification as a dangerous and deliberate move to dispossess Tamil communities already displaced by war.
The lawmaker specifically referenced Gazette No. 2430, dated 28 March 2025, which outlines plans to appropriate approximately 5,941 acres of land across the Tamil homeland. The notification seeks to designate the lands as state property under Section 5(1) of the Land Acquisition Act. According to Ravikaran, the Gazette targets 3,669 acres in Jaffna District, 1,703 acres in Mullaitivu, 515 acres in Kilinochchi, and 54 acres in Mannar.
He raised alarm over the lack of clear and just registration processes, warning that local residents risk losing lands they had lived on for generations. “Are you demanding documents from people who had fled with nothing but a loincloth?” Ravikaran asked the government, drawing attention to the absurdity of requiring paperwork from those who had escaped state bombardment and displacement in 2009.
He questioned whether the state was now acting in the footsteps of “past oppressive regimes,” and warned that without immediate withdrawal of the Gazette, the government risked betraying the very people it claimed to serve. The MP reminded Parliament that many survivors of the 2009 Mullivaikkal genocide fled under fire, abandoning homes, documents, and belongings.
Ravikaran accused the state of continuing the legacy of racist land policies that have targeted Tamil civilians for decades. He described the demand for ownership documents from war-displaced families as a continuation of the very oppression they fled.
Concluding his remarks, Ravikaran called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Gazette notification, urging the government not to betray the Tamil people of the North and East again. He warned that continued efforts to appropriate Tamil land would only deepen the mistrust and alienation.
