Army shuts Palaly temple road after festival as land remains under military control

The permanent access road to the Palaly Raja Rajeshwari Amman Temple, temporarily opened for the temple festival after being released from the Sri Lankan militarys high-security zone, was closed again on 31 July following the conclusion of the festival.

Although the temple area had been released last year, the public had only been allowed to reach the temple by a temporary route, while the permanent road remained shut. In the days before the festival, local residents fenced off their private land, making the temporary route impassable for devotees.

Following this, the temple administration appealed to the military authorities and the MP Ilankumaran. After discussions with the military, the permanent road was temporarily reopened to allow worshippers to attend the festival, though visitors were permitted to use it only after registering their national identity card numbers.

With the festival over on 30 July, the road was closed once more. Ilankumaran said arrangements were being made to reopen it permanently within a month.

"The road was temporarily opened for the festival in response to requests made by the public. Necessary steps are now being taken to keep the road permanently open, and it will be reopened within one month," he said.

He added that efforts were also under way to release a significant extent of land on the eastern side of the road within the next two months.

The dispute is one strand of the wider militarisation of the Palaly corridor, where vast tracts of Tamil land seized during the armed conflict remain under the control of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

Residents of Valikamam North have kept up sustained weekly protests at Myliddy and Palaly Junction demanding the return of their land, even as the government has issued fresh notices to acquire ancestral property for the expansion of Palaly Airport, and the deputy defence minister has told parliament that a further 1,661 acres in the North-East would be permanently seized for military infrastructure.