Residents in Jaffna and expats said they had heard reports of land returned to Tamils living abroad being occupied by locals or sold illegally by fraudsters to outside buyers. "There have been incidents where some lands are encroached because there are no owners (living) in Jaffna," M Arulkumaran, a local councillor at Jaffna municipal council, said in a phone interview. Locals noted that most Tamils living abroad make sure their returned lands are properly taken care of either by appointing a relative or a reliable person to oversee the properties. Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the government has been systematically and methodically returning land to displaced Tamils whenever it can. Like other Tamil expatriate land owners, he had already gone through the formality of repeatedly providing all the details of his land in writing to the Sri Lankan government, with no success.

Source: bd News24 April 22, 2020 00:00 UTC