With over 2000 of 3850 square kilometers of area in the war ravaged northern and eastern provinces still to be cleared, the UNICEF has handed over supplies and equipment worth 30 million rupees to the Sri Lankan government to strengthen the Mine Risk Education (MRE) activities.De-mining and creating awareness among the people to avoid the mines is one of the major tasks before the 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 iThe gigantic task can be gauged from the simple fact that the Sri Lanka Army along with other de-mining teams till date have cleared over 300,000 landmines in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in addition to the other non-governmental mining organizations, the military said.Demining operations are carried out in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts.At the function where the UNICEF handed over the equipment to strengthen the awareness programme on de-mining here the 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.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.Separately, the Government has established a separate secretariat for re-settlement of about 30,000 Muslim families in the Northern Province were forcibly evicted by the LTTE in 1990 and most of them sought refuge in the Puttalam District.The above Secretariat was established in the Puttalam District for their assistance. These Muslim families are now willing to go back to their places of origin in the North due to normalcy in those areas.On a proposal jointly made by Minister A.L.M. Athaulla and Minister Milroy Fernando the Cabinet decided to relocate the above Secretariat for a period of six (06) months in the Musali Division in the Mannar District from 1st November 2010. in order to facilitate the resettlement process of these Muslim families in the Mannar district.