177 acres of land in Sampoor handed over to the legitimate owners
 

Under the concept of His Excellency the President Maithripala Sirisena, steps have been taken to hand over the land deeds in Northern and Eastern provinces which were held under the control of Government security forces thus far. Going by that concept, the official handing over of 177 acres of land to the Governor of the Eastern Province Hon. Austin Fernando, came about today in Sampoor with the idea of redistributing those land among their legitimate owners. The event was participated by the Leader of the Opposition Hon. R. Sambandan, the Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs, Hon. D.M. Swaminathan, the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi, the Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Hon. Z.A. Nazeer Ahamed (Eng), Ministers of the Eastern Provincial Council, the Divisional Secretariat of Muthur and a large number of government officials. This land was previously occupied by a naval base in the area. Further navy has extended their support to refurbish the old Sampoor Maha Vidyalaya and Hindu Kovil which were stationed in this land, upon their handing over.

The naval base which was declared open in 2007 as a naval training centre in Sampoor later commissioned as SLNS Vidura in 2013. His Excellency the President Maithripala Sirisena handed over 60 acres of land out of 237, which belonged to SLNS Vidura earlier, to its original owners in August last year and the rest of 177 acres were returned today. The Sampoor naval base was shifted to a new area nearby.