TNA Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has said Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran has so far  refused to sign on 22 requests for private lands made by the army on the grounds that acquisitions are not for public purposes as he understands them,” said TNA’s spokesman, Suresh Premachandran.

Speaking to Indian media on Thurasday, the TNA Parliamentarian has said the army, navy as well as the Land Commissioner located in Colombo are arrogating lands to themselves by simply asking the Northern Administration to notify take overs.

Northern Administration, he says, is divided into two warring camps. While the political leadership headed by the Chief Minister, the Ministers and the Provincial Council members are in one camp resisting take overs, the bureaucracy headed by the Governor is taking over lands merrily encouraged by the Central  government  in Colombo.

On Wednesday, matters came to a head when the Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) organised a demonstration in Kilinochchi asking the army to vacate private lands. The demonstrators were even claiming the land on which the new headquarters of the army’s 58 Division now stands.

Army spokesman Brig.Ruwan Wanigasooriya had told Express News of India that the demonstrators had no case because the lands occupied by the army were those occupied by the LTTE. For example, the 58 Division’s HQ was built on the site where the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat stood.

“If there are any legal claimants with the necessary documents, the army will consider giving back the plot sought,” Wanigasooriya has said while adding that as on date, there are either no legal claimants or there are conflicting claims.