Trinco paddy farmers against highway construction: CA fixes 5 June for support

By S.S Selvanayagam

 The Court of Appeal yesterday fixed for support on 5 June the Writ petition filed by the paddy cultivators of Thampalakamam area of Trincomalee district against the construction of highway through their paddy fields. The matter came up before Justice S. Sriskandarajah (P/CA).

Petitioners A.M.A Fareed of Kinniya and S. Sathiyanathan, S. Theivanayagi and K. Thilakaratnam all of Thampalakamam cited Niladharis of Kovilady and Thampalakamam as well as the Kinniya Air Force Commanding Officer, Air  Force Commander, Valence Engineer Service (Pvt) Ltd, Road Development Authority (RDA) Project Engineer, Chairman of RDA and Urban Development Authority as Respondents.

M.A Sumanthiran with Bhavani Fonseka, Niran Anketel and Jaunita Arulananthan instructed by Moahan Balendra appeared for the Petitioners. Ms Subhanee Senatilake appeared for the seventh Respondent.

Petitioners state they all are engaged in paddy cultivation in the paddy lands privately own by them and claim it is their sole source of income. They bemoan the construction of the said highway would completely destroy their ability to engage in their livelihood as they would lose their paddy fields. They lament in addition to the highway being constricted over part of the land, the highway would result in the flooding of the paddy fields on either side of it.

They state their paddy lands are situated one to six kms from the outer circular road which was constructed by the RDA connecting Sampur and Kuchchaveli and is 67 km in length to facilitate the transport of personnel and goods and was initially used by only Government and military personnel.

They state an area of 675 km of Trincomalee district was demarcated as Special Economic Zone and parts of Muttur and other areas were demarcated as a High Security Zone (HSZ) by the President.

With the lapse of Emergency Regulations from August 30, 2011, the HSZ created y gazette is no longer in existence, they contend.

Since the end of hostilities in the area in 2007, there have been several plans to develop parts of Trincomalee district included under the government programme named ‘Eastern Reawakening’ also known as ‘Kilakkin Udaya’ and Negenahira Navodaya’. These plans include road construction in parts of Trincomalee district. The RDA with the active participation of the Army is involved in the construction of several roads.

They lament that in July 2009, stakes were placed on the borders of the paddy lands belonging to them and subsequently a pile of stones were dumped in their paddy field.

The aggrieved Petitioners maintain that as residents of the area, they know that the construction of the said highway is unnecessary as there are two major roads running parallel to where the said high way is planned to be constructed, on either side of it. One is the road from Kinniya to Thampalakamam and the other is the road from Kinniya to Vaanaaru.

They are seeking a Writ of Prohibition from the Court to prevent the construction of the said highway.