Minister for Lands Ashneel Sudhakar says they will have to check if there is evidence that shows the piece of land given to the Indian government is an ancient burial site.

Sudhakar says the same piece of land has the British High Commissioner residence built on it and there was no issue raised then.

The Minister clarifies the bottom line is that the land is owned by the state and they will determine the development that takes place.

“For this Indian Embassy allocation, the land belongs to the state, the state was requested so it is within the powers of the Director of lands to allocate the land to the embassy or for any other purpose as well.”

Meanwhile, the petition put forward by villagers of Suvavou, Lami will be dealt with by the Local Government Ministry.

Efforts to try and seek comments from Local Government Minister Premila Kumar were futile.