Photo courtesy of lanciburuwa.blogspot.com
The Sri Lankan government announced the so-called ‘presidential palace’ in Jaffna, which was constructed by the military in 2012 on land that it had seized from local Tamils, will now be leased out to a private university.
The five-star luxury ‘palace’ was built on occupied land in the Naguleshwaram and Valikamam area of Kankesanthurai in Jaffna, at a staggering cost of Rs. 3.5 billion.
It was built in 2012, on 12 hectares of land, owned by at least 17 private owners. The building itself spans 9.95 hectares and boasts 20 rooms, 2 swimming pools and was built by the Sri Lankan military. In 2015, former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa who launched the construction, claimed the building would not be a residential palace but rather a “International Relations Center” constructed to host foreign diplomats and dignitaries.
The local Tamil community was roundly opposed to its construction. In 2021, the Valikamam North local council chairman said it had been built in an area adjacent to 64 critical venues, including temples, freshwater springs and ancient caves.
At least 62 acres of the land used for the ‘palace’ was also land that was part of the Kankesanthurai Cement Factory. “The lands adjacent to it are to be acquired by the Army for tourism development projects,” said TNA MP Mavai Senathirajah. “We are against this move at all costs. This land is historically important to our people.”
In 2019, the then Northern Province Governor Suren Raghavan admitted that around 16,000 people in the Northern Province remain landless, while 5,000 people are embroiled in various land disputes.
Nevertheless, the construction continued. The Sunday Morning however revealed that it has since “remained abandoned and unused for many years, devoid of any official Government activities”.
Now, the palace is reportedly set to be leased to the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLITT), a private university on the island.
