Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa yesterday in Parliament denied allegations by TNA for making false allegations against the government that the north was being forcibly colonized by the Sinhalese.

Minister Rajapaksa, who vehemently denied this allegation, said that the TNA MPs were misleading the House by making such false statements. “You should remember that it was the LTTE who evicted Sinhalese, Muslims and your own people from the North. The government has paved the way for their return,” he told the TNA.

He asserted that not one single Sinhalese family had been resettled in the North to date.

Mr. Rajapaksa was responding to an allegation by TNA MP E. Saravanapavan who charged that Sinhalese colonization was taking place in the North. TNA MP Suresh Premachandran had also made a similar allegation earlier in the day that plans were underway to set up a Sinhalese Divisional Secretariat in the Mullaitivu District.