• Claims that plantation Tamils systematically and institutionally discriminated in post-Ditwah rebuilding of housing, cites non-provision of Rs. 5 m housing grant/land allocation  

The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) has urged France to link the European Union’s (EU) Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP +) trade concessions to Sri Lanka to the Malaiyaha community’s land and housing rights. 

A delegation of the TPA, led by Opposition Parliamentarian Mano Ganesan met with the Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka, Rémi Lambert, at Ganesan’s residence in Colombo, where wide-ranging discussions were held on post-disaster recovery, land rights, and the situation of the Malaiyaha (plantation) Tamil community. During the meeting, the TPA delegation briefed the Ambassador on what they described as the systematic discrimination faced by Malaiyaha Tamil Sri Lankans under the Government’s Rebuilding Sri Lanka housing initiative, particularly in the aftermath of the Ditwah disaster.

Speaking later on the social media platform X, Ganesan stated that the Malaiyaha community, especially plantation residents, had been among the worst affected by the Ditwah disaster, and yet they continue to be excluded from equal treatment in the State’s housing and resettlement programmes. He pointed out that despite official commitments, the promised Rs. 5 million housing grant and land allocation for each displaced family had still not been extended to the plantation community. “This is not an oversight. It is institutional discrimination,” Ganesan claimed.

He also noted that repeated requests by the TPA and civil society organisations for a meeting with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to discuss these unresolved, community-specific injustices had so far gone unanswered.

According to Ganesan, the TPA delegation urged France to use its good offices to press the Sri Lankan Government to end this discriminatory practice and to ensure equal rights, resources, and dignity for Malaiyaha Tamil Sri Lankans. He further stated that he had appealed to France, as a leading Member of the EU, to insist that land and housing rights for the Malaiyaha community be made a condition for Sri Lanka’s continued access to GSP+ trade concessions.

The meeting also focused on the broader impact of the Ditwah disaster on Sri Lanka’s Hill Country and the urgent need to move away from temporary and cosmetic solutions toward a rights-based, land-centred, and preventive recovery model.

Both sides emphasised the importance of international partnership in ensuring that recovery efforts are not only about rebuilding houses, but about restoring dignity, security, and long-term justice to communities that have endured structural injustice for generations.