Involuntary Displacement and Resettlement — Policy and ... - CEPA

power, negotiation skills or a place to turn for assistance to recover thedeposit. Rani finds herself in a different situation:The GN told us that if we find some land he would try to get us somemoney. But when we found land, the owner asked for an advance beforehanding over a copy of deed. The GN told us to give our money to theowner and after that he would try to get us a land grant. When we said donot have the money, the GN said we should pawn our jewellery to pay adeposit. (Field notes, 24 October 2007).With government delays in cash grant transfers, the lack of capital andcollateral among the urban poor, and a land market favouring sellers, manyearnest attempts by the tsunami-affected have been thwarted. As Sujithrecounted:We found a piece of land in Diggala and handed over the photocopy of thedeed and other documents to the DS office over one year ago. When Iwent to the DRO office to get the money, he said, ‘I can’t give you moneybecause you didn’t hand over the photocopy of the plan.’ I then asked thelandowner for that document and he said he doesn’t have that document.Not only that but he had sold the land to another person. Now I hope aNGO gives us a house. (Field notes, 24 October 2007).Finally, there were several cases where a tsunami-affected person has paida deposit, received a copy of the deed and survey plan, and received the Rs.250,000. Yet upon returning to the owner to claim the property found that ithad been sold to someone else; again with the landowner refusing to returnthe deposit. In most of these cases, such persons did not take legal actionagainst the landowner, as they cannot prove that they had paid an advance.Without a receipt, holding a copy of the deed and the survey plan are nottaken as proof. In March 2008 (more than three years after the tsunami),the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) held a number of clinicsat Colombo shelter sites instructing persons about the safety measures theyneed to take, such as getting an ‘agreement to sell’ from the landowner aswell as registering a ‘priority notice’ at the DS office on that piece of land sothat if the landowner tries to sell it to another person after a deposit hasbeen given, local government authorities will notify the person who paid thedeposit. This information is critical to avoid being taken advantage of. As oneattendee at a Moratuwa clinic noted, “if we had known this before, it wouldhave been better” (Field notes, 3 March 2008).196