10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Mahanuwara· 27 February 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Questions: Power Generation (Q.153/2024), Human-Elephant Conflict (Q.188/2024), Majma Nagar Cemetery (Q.291/2024), Public Service Commission Uva Province (Q.389/2025)

Justice & Human RightsLand & Housing
AI summary generated by gpt-5.5

Rauff Hakeem raised concerns about the burial site used for over 3,000 COVID-19 victims, stating that the decision to require burial in deep groundwater areas caused hardship to families seeking dignified last rites. He highlighted the impact on poor residents and cultivation permit holders in Majma Nagar following land acquisition, and asked whether alternate State lands in nearby areas would be provided to about 10 affected permit holders.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, my first supplementary: Over 3,000 COVID-19 bodies were buried there. Due to an unscientific decision requiring deep groundwater areas, many families suffered without the chance for dignified last rites as remains were transported far.

¶ 02 In Majma Nagar, an extremely poor area with about 300 families, some cultivation permit holders have been treated unfairly due to acquisition. About 10 have requested alternate lands. Will you provide alternate State lands in adjacent areas for those who lost their permits?

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Thursday, 27 February 2025 ·No. 1741437399068186 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column
not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
Permalink
/lk/speeches/13209

Cite as: The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 27 February 2025. No. 1741437399068186. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/13209