Allocation for “Kivul Oya” Project Another Form of Structural Genocide – MP Thurairasa Ravikaran

13-Nov-2025

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Allocating Rs.2.5 billion in the 2026 Budget for the “Kivul Oya” Reservoir Project, which is to be implemented by the Mahaweli Development Authority (Zone L), amounts to another form of structural genocide against the Tamil people, charged TNA MP for Vanni District Thurairasa Ravikaran.

Speaking during the third day of debate on the Second Reading of the 2026 Budget on November 11, he said the project would seize ancestral Tamil lands, tanks, and ancient villages in Vavuniya North.

He stated that over ten traditional Tamil irrigation tanks, their adjoining paddy fields, and old Tamil villages would be submerged under the project, which involves building a large dam by blocking the Mao Oya and Suriyan Oya rivers.

About 6,000 acres of irrigated farmland in the Welioya area would then be distributed to 2,000 settlers from the majority community, he said.

He warned that traditional Tamil irrigation tanks and villages such as Iramankulam, Kottodai Kulam, Oyamadukulam, Vellankulam, Periyakattukulam, Panikkalmadukulam, Sannamurtramudukulam, 

Kammanchikulam, Kurinjakkulam, Pulikkutti Kulam, and Thirivaichakulam were under threat of submersion, along with Navalarpalm, Kallarukulam, Eechankulam, and Koolankulam paddy lands, and ancient 

Tamil villages like Kattupoo varasankulam, Kanchooramottai, and Maruthodai.

He denounced such projects as manifestations of a planned campaign of Tamil structural genocide and appealed to Parliament to take immediate steps to halt the project.