Still no land-route to Mayiliddi jetty, uprooted fishermen complain

Two small pockets of coastal lands along with a jetty in the ancient fisheries village of Mayiliddi in Valikaamam North was released back to the uprooted people four months ago with big propaganda. But, the occupying SL military did not open the land route for civilian access. Most of the uprooted Mayiliddi fishermen still reside along the coastal stretch of Valveddiththu'rai (VVT), Point-Pedro towards Naakar-koayil of Vadamaraadchi East. The Sinhala military is still not prepared to open the coastal road to enable the uprooted Mayiliddi fishermen to travel forth and back to their coastal jetty and engage in fishing along the rich fish beds off Mayiliddi coast, civil sources in VVT told TamilNet.

Apart from two lots of lands along the jetty and a coastal temple, the SL military did not release any residential lands back to the people of Mayiliddi.

The hope of getting more lands released in the coming months was also dashed a few weeks ago when the SL military announced all such release of lands in the military-occupied zone have been postponed for two years.

In the meantime, SL civil authorities were discussing possibilities to commence a temporary bus service with the assistance of SL Transport Board buses through military-occupied coastal road to enable to fishermen to travel forth and back. But that too has not materialised, the fishermen complained.

As of today, the fishermen have to reach the released pocket of jetty either from Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) or from Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi by boats.