Colombo: A Sri Lankan MP from the opposition on Tuesday raised concern regarding a reported move by the government to disband the New Villages Development Authority (NEVIDA) in the central hill districts on Tuesday.
Mano Ganesan, the opposition parliamentarian, said, “I have urged President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to halt the government’s reported move to abolish NEVIDA.”
The New Villages Development Authority for the Plantation Region in Sri Lanka is an official government body that oversees the development of villages within the country’s plantation areas.
The authority is responsible for the development of villages in the plantation regions. This includes implementing and overseeing infrastructure projects. NEVIDA operates under the Sri Lankan Ministry of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development.
Ganesan added that NEVIDA was established by an Act of Parliament in 2018 to address the marginalisation of the Malayiha Tamil community through housing, education, healthcare, livelihood development, youth and women’s empowerment.
“Reducing this statutory body to a mere division would weaken its mandate and risk dismantling one of the community’s few institutional gains,” he said.
Malayiha Tamils are descendants of Tamil tea plantation workers from south of India brought by the British during colonial rule in Sri Lanka.
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