Rebuilding SL: PTF disputes UNDP on Ditwah victims plight

• Claims no instances found where victims are reduced to selling belongings 

The Rebuilding Sri Lanka Presidential Task Force (PTF) has rejected the findings of a recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) survey, which indicated that victims of Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka are selling personal assets to survive, asserting the Government's own data collection shows no such crisis.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, the PTF Convenor and Secretary, G.M.R.D. Aponsu said that the Government has an organised procedure for collecting data on those affected by Ditwah, has a widespread programme for distributing aid and relief services, and has not identified any occasion where victims are selling their personal assets for survival. “We have a procedure of collecting information on those affected by Ditwah, consisting of officers from the Grama Sewakas to the District Secretariats. It collects data on all property damages and information about all the economic activities of the affected. We have not identified any such situation,’ he explained.

Further, he mentioned that one of the specific situations identified through this procedure is the issue of isolated villages, mainly in the Matale District. ‘We have brought all of them to relief camps. Some have left the camps with their consent. Most have gone to live with relatives, and some have gone to rental houses,’ he added.

The response comes in the wake of the findings of the UNDP that some victims devastated by Ditwah are increasingly selling their personal assets including livestock, jewellery and vehicles and relying on subsistence activities to survive. 

Source - The Morning