MULLAITIVU: India on Wednesday gifted LKR 89 million (USD 700,000) worth of equipment to the Mullaitivu District General Hospital in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.
The 150-bed General Hospital was opened by the Indian MPs’ team. Adjacent to it, India is helping the construction of another 100-bed hospital. The team also saw some of the houses built by India under a project to build 50,000 houses for the war refugees.
“The people are concerned about the slow pace of the construction of Indian houses. This is partly due to the difficulty in getting land and partly due to the inefficiency of the contractors, who are from Tamil Nadu,” said T K Rangarajan of the CPM.
Congress MP M Krishnaswamy said the government of India would have to keep a watch over the contractors.
Noticing that the houses had tiles rather than a concrete roof, Krishnaswamy said that with `4.75 lakh being spent on each house, concrete roofing was possible.
The Indian Members of Parliament were told that acquiring land for house construction was an issue as the land had to be cleared of land mines first. According to the Indian de-mining team, it will take up to 15 years to fully clear Mullaitivu district of mines,” CPM MP Rangarajan said.
The team also gifted bicycles to the refugees. Over 1,00,000 bicycles were either lost or destroyed during the war in the Northern Province.