Tamil National People’s Front leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has accused the government of using the language of development to pursue the acquisition of around 3,000 acres of civilian-owned land in Valikamam North, under the heading of expanding Palaly International Airport.
The Jaffna District MP made the claim at a press conference at the Vadamarachchi media house in Point Pedro on Friday, Tamil Guardian reported.
The argument
Gajendrakumar’s case is not that the airport should stay as it is. It is that the development already planned does not require taking any more land.
Palaly has been designated an international airport but currently operates only limited services to India. A three-stage development programme exists for the site. Gajendrakumar said the government is delaying implementation of those stages while pressing ahead with proposals that would require fresh acquisition.
He pointed in particular to the second phase, the rehabilitation of the runway. The Indian government, he said, has offered to provide the full funding required for that work, but the Sri Lankan government has not shown the commitment needed to carry it out.
“If that work is carried out, the standard of Palaly airport can be improved without the need to acquire additional land,” he said.
He warned that proceeding with the proposed expansion could see around 3,000 acres in Valikamam North permanently lost to their civilian owners. Tamil people could support development already planned for the airport, he said, but not an expansion requiring further acquisition.
The political charge
Gajendrakumar framed the dispute against the National People’s Power government’s own commitments on releasing military-held land in the North and East. For Tamil voters who backed the NPP partly on that expectation, Tamil Guardian noted, continued pressure on land in Valikamam North raises the question of whether a change of government has produced a change in the state’s approach.
That pressure is documented. Residents of Valikamam North were displaced in June 1990 and the area was designated a High Security Zone; more than 6,000 families remain displaced, and campaigners are still demanding revocation of a 2013 defence ministry gazette under which some 6,317 acres were acquired. Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara told parliament last month that a further 1,661 acres in the North-East would be permanently acquired for military infrastructure and would not be returned. Landowners have held weekly protests at Palaly Junction through the middle of the year.
Unanswered
No government response to Gajendrakumar’s specific claim has been reported. The 3,000-acre figure is his; no official acquisition notice quantifying the land required for the airport expansion has been published in the reporting, and it is not established whether that acreage overlaps the 1,661 acres already flagged for permanent military acquisition or sits separately from it.
As of Wednesday morning, no verified Sri Lankan newsroom other than Tamil Guardian had published its own report of the press conference.
