{"id":2465,"date":"2026-06-14T06:51:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T06:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/?p=2465"},"modified":"2026-06-14T06:51:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T06:51:29","slug":"chairman-nirosh-calls-for-public-support-for-land-rights-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/2026\/06\/14\/chairman-nirosh-calls-for-public-support-for-land-rights-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairman Nirosh Calls for Public Support for Land Rights Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Thiyagarajah Nirosh<\/strong>, Chairman of the <strong>Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha<\/strong>, has called on the public to unite in support of people who have been deprived of their lands for the past 36 years.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking ahead of a protest scheduled for 15 June in front of the <strong>Jaffna District Secretariat<\/strong>, he stated that many residents of Valikamam North lost their lands to military occupation decades ago and have since been living as internally displaced persons or refugees abroad.<\/p>\n<p>He questioned how it could be acceptable that, despite the end of the civil war 17 years ago, many affected families have still not been guaranteed the right to return and resettle on their lands.<\/p>\n<p>Nirosh said the protest marks the 36th anniversary of the displacement and emphasized that those participating have endured years of hardship, living in welfare camps or with relatives after losing their homes and property.<\/p>\n<p>He further alleged that fertile civilian lands are still being used for military camps and recreational facilities. According to him, the current government cannot avoid responsibility by attributing the issue solely to previous administrations.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that many people had expected the government to release their lands after coming to power, but instead affected residents continue to stage weekly protests demanding their return.<\/p>\n<p>According to Nirosh, more than <strong>3,000 acres of land<\/strong> across several administrative divisions remain under military control. He claimed that income is being generated from some of these lands while many displaced residents continue to live without permanent homes.<\/p>\n<p>He concluded by stating that the demands of the protesters are justified and affirmed his full support for the campaign seeking the release of civilian lands and the resettlement of displaced families.<\/p>\n<p><em>The statements above reflect the views and allegations expressed by the speaker. Land ownership and military land-use issues remain matters of public and political debate in Sri Lanka.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thiyagarajah Nirosh, Chairman of the Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha, has called on the public to unite in support of people who have been deprived of their lands for the past 36 years. Speaking ahead of a protest scheduled for 15 June in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat, he stated that many residents of Valikamam &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2467,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions\/2467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}