UNICEF, in a ceremony held at Colombo on Thursday handed over supplies and equipment worth Rs. 30 million to the Sri Lankan government to strengthen the Mine Risk Education (MRE) activities in the war ravaged areas of the North and East.Economic Development Minister in Sri Lanka Basil Rajapaksa said that UNICEF donations will help expedite the mine risk education activities and ensure zero mine related casualties. The Minister thanked UNICEF for their collaboration and support.UNICEF Representative Desiree Jongsma said ‘Mine Risk Education remains critical as communities rebuild their lives both in the North and East of the country”.”Through this important partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka, children and their families will be able to live, work and go to school in safety,” she said.The 30 million Rs donation from UNICEF includes four Toyota Land Cruisers, six motor bikes and a range of multi-media equipment including lap top computers, printers, scanners, fax machines, TVs and DVD players, digital cameras and generators.UNICEF has also provided MRE training for 64 Humanitarian De mining Unit staff.The National Mine Action Program set-up under the Economic Development Ministry consists of five primary areas; mine clearance, mine risk education, victim assistance, advocacy and stock pile destruction.AIR correspondent Kanchan reports from Colombo that de-mining and creating awareness among the people to avoid the mines is one of the major tasks before the Sri Lankan Government while re-settling close to three lakh displaced Tamil civilians.The Government says it has re-settled more than 90 per cent of the displaced civilians. However since de-mining is a slow and expensive process, it has proved to be a major obstacle in restoration of livelihood of the people.The gigantic task can be gauged from the fact that the Sri Lanka Army along with other de-mining teams till date have cleared over three lakh landmines in the Northern and Eastern Provinces .UNICEF Representative Desiree Jongsma said ‘Mine Risk Education remains critical as communities rebuild their lives both in the North and East of the country”.”Through this important partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka, children and their families will be able to live, work and go to school in safety,” she said. Separately, the Government has established a separate secretariat for re-settlement of about 30,000 Muslim families in the Northern Province who were forcibly evicted by the LTTE in 1990 and most of them sought refuge in the Puttalam District.