KAMALIKA PIERIS

YAN OYA SETTLEMENT PROJECT 1983

The aborted Maduru Oya Sinhala settlement of September 1983 was part of a much grander Sinhalisation plan suggested by an officer at the Mahaweli Authority in 1983.T.H. Karunatilleke Director of Planning in Mahaweli [1] had studied the Eelam strategy and had come up with a plan to thwart it. The plan had two phases.

Phase one of Karunatilleke’s plan was to break the north- east Tamil settler continuum by creating three Sinhala settlements in the river basins of Maduru Oya, Yan Oya and Malwatu Oya.  The Maduru Oya settlement (Mahaweli system B) would come between Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts.  The Yan Oya settlement (Mahaweli system L) would be between Trincomalee and Mullaitivu districts.  The Malwatu Oya settlement (Mahaweli system I) would prevent a connection between Mannar and Puttalam districts. [2]

The landsaround these three streamswere mostly jungle and sparsely populated. The plan was to settle at least 50,000 Sinhala families in each of these settlements, thus completely altering the ethnic composition of the population in these areas.

The Yan Oya settlement was the most urgent and most important of these settlements. Yan Oya is a fourth order stream with a drainage area of 1,551.3 km, and length of 142 km. The basin has seven sub-watersheds.  It starts in the hilly areas of Dambulla and Sigiriya, and flows to the sea at Pulmoddai in the Trincomalee district.

Maduru Oya is a sixth order stream approximately 135 km (84 mi) in length. It meets the sea at Kalkudah. Malwatu Oya is a second order stream which discharges into Mannar Lagoon after passing through Anuradhapura, Vavuniya and Mannar districts. The Malwatu Oya segment selected by Karunatilleke for settlement is in the arid zone and its carrying capacity is low. Therefore the Malwatu settlement could be administered last, Karunatilleke said.    

The second phase of the plan was to make use of the demographic change brought about by the Sinhala settlements and redraw the provincial map of Sri Lanka.  The boundaries of the Northern, North Central, North Western and Eastern provinces would be altered and a fifth province created, North Eastern Province.

Northern Province would contain Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts. North Central Province will have Vavuniya, Anuradhapura and Weli Oya districts. Weli Oya would be made a new district thus reducing the area of the Mullaitivu district. North Western Province will contain Mannar, Puttalam and Kurunegala districts. Eastern Province will have Batticaloa and Ampara districts.  The new province, North Eastern Province will contain Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee districts.  [3]

T.H. Karunatilleke, B.H. Hemapriya and Malinga Gunaratne met to discuss Karunatilleke’s plan. This meeting was held in    July 1983 days before the 1983 riots. Karunatilleke and Hemapriya had the sense to keep the plan secret, noted Malinga.

Malinga found the plan feasible. System M is adjacent to Padaviya on the north, to Trincomalee and Kantale on the south and Horowopotana and other Sinhala settlements on the west. The Sinhala settlements already in place were close to each other Weli Oya to Padaviya is 18.4 km and 27 minutes travel. Morawewa to Padaviya was just 15 minutes flying time. If you settle in Yan Oya, expand Padaviya and fortify Trincomalee, it is done,   said Malinga.

Yan Oya and Maduru Oya settlements were discussed simultaneously, but Maduru Oya settlement was the first to be actually carried out by the group. The resulting Maduru Oya settlement fiasco” has been discussed. This essay looks at the settlement project planned for Yan Oya at the Mahaweli Ministry.

Karunatilleke had prepared a report for the Mahaweli Authority, titled Geo-political significance of developing Yan Oya, Mahaweli system M.” Yan Oya had approximately 40-50,000 acres of land, mostly un- utilized.  We must develop this immediately, Karunatilleke said in the report. System M could be developed at low cost and within a short period of time. Excess water from the Mahaweli should be diverted to Yan Oya.

A new Sinhala settlement must be established at Yan Oya. This should be done straightaway he said. Yan Oya already had a predominantly Sinhala population  at Huruluwewa. Upper region of the future settlement must therefore start at Huruluwewa.  Karunatilleke also wanted small e also

farms created and given out to ex-servicemen. He wanted the outer perimeter of the settlement fortified with cadju plantations. There should be massive cadju plantations there, he said

Karunatilleke pointed out that at present the Eastern Province has small Sinhala settlements distributed over a wide area. These small settlements cannot survive on their own. They are too far apart, and since they depend on small tanks which do not give them sufficient water for assured cultivation, they are economically weak. They will   be easy prey for Eelamists. For the continuous existence of these small settlements it is necessary to anchor them to large Sinhala settlements.

Yan Oya settlement will strengthen the already established Padaviya and Kantale schemes as well as small settlements like Morawewa and Mahadivulwewa in the Trincomalee district.   When Yan Oya settlement   links with Padaviya and  Morawewa a large Sinhala area starting at Padaviya and extending to the eastern sea coast will be created   Padaviya is narrow and surrounded by Tamil settlements,  But when linked to  the  Yan Oya settlement, there will be a ‘large strong anchorage’. The Sinhala settlement must then move upwards from Padaviya into Mullaitivu district where there are sufficient natural resources to accommodate the increased population, said Karunatilleke.     

Establishing small scattered   settlements cannot solve the problem of Eelam. What is needed is a permanent solution, and that is to set up large Sinhala settlements.  Small settlements can get wiped out but a large region of the magnitude planned at Yan Oya will not succumb.  If these small settlements are anchored in this way, they will get firmly established and will help Sinhalise the Northern Province said Karunatilleke.

Malinga conveyed Karunatilleke’s plan to Gamini Dissanayake, Minster for Mahaweli. Gamini thought the proposal an excellent one. He would inform the President JR Jayewardene. He wanted to meet Karunatilleke and he wanted a paper prepared.  Karunatilleke was very happy about his meeting with Gamini. He wrote up the report discussed above.  

Around 23 July 1983, Gamini told Malinga that the President was in complete agreement with the plan. Malinga was told to go ahead with arrangements for Yan Oya. Malinga discussed the project with NGP Panditeratne, Director General of Mahaweli authority. Panditeratne was cautious. He said this Yan Oya proposal is not a new one. It had been there for some time. He okayed the project.

Malinga contacted the authorities at Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau. CECB was at the time attached to Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment. A.N.S. Kulasinghe (Chairman), G.G. Jayawardene and H.B. Jayasekera of the CECB were enthusiastic about the project when they heard that President had given approval.   Karunatilleke and Hemapriya came in and briefed them 

HB Jayasekera, deputy General Manager, CECB   had fought many battles in Mahaweli to prevent the inequitable distribution of water to the north and east. He knew intimately, in detail and depth, how Eelam lobbyists had penetrated the Mahaweli nerve centers, said Malinga  

Jayasekera visited Yan Oya and reported back that Yan Oya valley is a very fertile basin of 25-30,000 acres. Soil is very rich and any kind of crop can be grown. River flows through lush uninhabited country and into the sea. The valley is not inhabited but some Tamil settlements have come up in near the perimeter of Yan Oya close to the sea. They have seen the importance of this basin and these settlements appear to be illegal.

Jayasekera suggest advance alienation of the land to prevent Eelamists from grabbing the land. The Sinhala settlers should be given the land before the dam is built. They can do one cultivation with the monsoon rains and some of the settlers can be utilized for development of the project.      State cadju plantations can also be started.

Mahaweli Authority wanted to test the political mood in the Yan Oya with regard to security for the settlers. Karunatilleke and Palitha Pelpola were sent to find out. They reported that that there was absolutely no problem in settling a Sinhala population there as there was  a predominantly Sinhala population already in the upper reaches and that can be extended quietly.

Kulasinghe sent his officers to find a suitable location for the dam across Yan Oya. Once a location was found, Kulasinghe ordered a dam in Yan Oya. Dam could be thrown across Yan Oya in six months at cost of 300 million rupees, water sufficed for 30,000 people, reported Malinga in his book. There is no mention of this dam  after that.

In August 1983, Gamini  wanted to meet the key officers who would implement the Yan Oya project. Malinga was asked to organize the meeting. They decided it was best to meet at Gamini’s house and not the Ministry.   At this meeting Gamini had outlined the plan for Yan Oya and Malwatu Oya settlements. He said that he had discussed this with the President and was now formally instructing his officials to go ahead with the plan.   Kulasinghe spoke on the engineering aspects of the Yan Oya dam and Panditaratne stated that funds were available. Kulasinghe was instructed to go ahead with the dam and Malinga was asked to get suitable persons as settlers.

However, Panditaratne was not happy about the meeting.He told Malinga to ask   Gamini not to arrange any further meetings of this sort, but to allocate tasks to persons, with Malinga monitoring them for the Minister. He was correct. The other officials in the Ministry objected to being left out and opposition to the project started building. Some tried to scuttle the project. No more meetings were held.  

Malinga started to look for settlers. He instructed the Public Relations Officers in his Department to go out and select the future settlers. Choose able bodied men between 30-40 with an aptitude for farming,  who will not look to the state for assistance. The PROs were not told where the settlers were going, only that it would be around Trincomalee. The PROs fanned out to the different parts of the island in search of settlers. We were going to do a massive settlement in system M of the Yan Oya basin.

In early October, 1983 Gamini Dissanayake  assembled a group of business men at the home of Nawaloka Mudalali’s son to obtain financial support for future Sinhala settlements in the Eelam area. Malinga was present and wrote about it in his book. He said that about 15 were present including at least two MPs, GV Punchinilame and GM Premachandra. The business men included, H. K. Dharmadasa (Nawaloka Mudalali) and his son, S. D. Gunadasa  (Dasa Mudalali), Chandra Hemachandra and his son. Chandra was  a  bus magnate  owning  one of Sri Lanka largest transport fleets.

This group were told about the illegal Tamil settlements in the Mahaweli system. Mahaweli officials   explained the ‘secret plan’. Yan Oya and Malwatu Oya  settlement plans were described. Gamini said he wanted the settlements in  Yan Oya and Malwatu   be done in the same style as Maduru Oya.

Gamini said that the state would not be able to undertake the plan as it would upset India.  He suggested that a private fund be established to finance the project. Dasa  Mudalali  had his doubts about this plan. He wanted to know whether the President actually knew about this.  Gamini said  Yes, the President knows and I will get a contribution   from  Presidents fund for the purpose. The group then pledged sums of money  totaling Rupees 3 ½ million. Malinga  had noted down each sum.  Nawaloka Mudalali   was asked to find a name for the fund  and an auspicious time to start it.

The inaugural meeting  of the fund was  held at Gamini’s house on 16 October 1983. Malinga was present. Nawaloka Mudalali handed over the first  cheque at the auspicious time, followed by  the others. The cheques were not cashed because the next day Jayewardene ordered the arrest of  Malinga Gunaratne and other prime movers of the  ‘secret plan’.  At the same time, he also ordered  the  complete removal of the Maduru Oya settlement. That was the end of the Yan Oya project . (continued)

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[1]  Malinga Gunaratne. For a sovereign state

[2] www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626 T Sabaratnam

[3] www.sangam.org/articles/view2/?uid=626 T Sabaratnam