Centre for Policy Alternatives

Citizenship refers to the legal and political status of a person as a member of a state. The purpose of this article is to analyze how statesponsored resettlement resulting from development projects undermines the rights and equality of citizens. A project is the simplest independent action unit in a development investment process. Promoting equality during resettlement can prevent many socio-political and economic problems. This article will question why the citizens, despite having equal rights, are subject to social exclusion during development projects. The Deduru Oya development project has affected 584 families and they have been resettled in 04 areas. This article is based on field research conducted in the resettled village of Polgammana. The article is significant because there are very few studies based on the social, economic, and political rights of resettles. The article compares both the pre-and post- stages of a development project highlighting the importance of promoting the right to equality for Sri Lankan citizens. The article uses HT Marshall's theory of social citizenship, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern’s theory of games and economic behavior, and the theory of legal rights as its theoretical basis.

In recent years, Sri Lanka has seriously considered the federal idea as a basis for a political solution to the island's protracted ethnic conflict. There remains, however, steadfast opposition to the federal idea among significant sections of the island's Sinhalese majority and many of these anti-federalists are now part of the Rajapakse Administration that has governed the country since 2005. The chapter seeks to discuss the federal debate in Sri Lanka placing it in historical context, critically examine the reasons why federalism has once again in recent years become so unacceptable in the island's political discourse and reaffirm the arguments in favour of a federal based solution to the island's ethnic conflict.