BETA

Mr Poopalapillai Sangaravel
 13.06.29 – 09.06.08

Veteran civil servant and renowned social worker Poopalapillai Sangaravel, former Additional Government Agent of Batticaloa is remembered with gratitude for his committed, relentless and yeoman service to the people of the Eastern Province for a long time.

Born on 13th June 1929 at Periyakallaa’ru in Batticaloa, Mr. Sangaravel had his early education at Sivananda Vidyalayam, Batticaloa. He later went to study at Jaffna Central College from where he entered the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, and graduated in Agriculture.

He became a member of the Ceylon Administrative Service, the predecessor of today’s SLAS and served as District Land Officer in the Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Mannaar districts before becoming the Additional Government Agent of Batticaloa. For short spells he also worked as Additional GA at Puththa'lam and as Deputy Director in the Ministry of Finance and Development.

As Secretary of the University College, Batticaloa, in its incipient days between 1983 and 1986, his contribution to develop it as the Eastern University of Sri Lanka is very well remembered and appreciated.
He was coordinator for UNDP in the NorthEast Province when the provincial administration was created and left it due to compelling situations in 1990 to settle in UK.

When he left Sri Lanka he availed his houses for the use of a charity organization for the blind, called Tharisanam.

His commitment to suffering people didn’t keep him quiet in UK. He was involved in refugee work through the Tamil Relief Centre (TRC). He was also responsible for organizing a conference, Agni of the East and at the time of his demise he was the chairman of the TRC, Edmonton, UK. He used to voice strongly against the de-merger of the North-East Province.

Mr. Sangaravel’s career was a typical example of political and ethnic victimization by Sri Lankan state, carried out by successive governments. Despite his seniority and long service as Additional GA, he was never made as Government Agent because he was seen as one committed to serve the oppressed Tamils of the Eastern Province. The fact that he was the elder brother of the TULF MP for Paddiruppu, Mr. P Ganeshalingam who played a very dynamic role to safeguard tamils’land ownership out of Sinhala colonisation in Pattiruppu Electorate was another reason. The times were such that the land and the people he loved could not receive the full benefit of his potentiality, experience and humane qualities.

Late P.Sangaravel hailed from East with strong background of Tamil nationalism. He was always concerned about the socio economic development of the Eastern people who were under continuous threat of ethnic pressure from oppressive state. Sangaravel was the person had very good insight about the sinhalization program in the east especially in Amparai and North of Batticaloa (Pollanaruwa boarders), that is the reason sangaravel always advocated collective identity of the homeland of Tamils under single unit model of NorthEast Province. When Sri Lankan government tried to bifurcate our home land in 2004, he held a firm stand on NorthEast unity.

We the British Tamils Forum joins the multitudes of mourners in paying tributes to him and conveying condolences to his bereaved family members.

British Tamils Forum