The Hon. M.S. Abthul Wazeeth
Hon. M.S. Abthul Wazeeth raised concerns that long-cultivated agricultural lands in several locations in the Pottuvil DS Division have been identified as Forest Department lands, leading to court cases against cultivators. He asked whether the Minister would use Cabinet Paper No. 25/1560/626/020 dated 04.09.2025 to withdraw pending cases and include such continuously cultivated lands in the list for release from Forest Department or Wildlife conservation designation.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, my first supplementary:
¶ 02 In the Pottuvil DS Division, for locations such as 1/17 Sengamam, 17/05 Hijrath Nagar, 17/26 Selvaveli and Palliyadivattai, agricultural lands that have been cultivated for many years are being identified as belonging to the Forest Department, and cases have been filed against many people. If lands cultivated fall within areas gazetted for Forest Department/Wildlife conservation, in order to release such lands, can the Hon. Minister act through the Cabinet Paper No. 25/1560/626/020 dated 04.09.2025, to withdraw pending court cases and include these continuously cultivated agricultural lands in the list for release?
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 23 January 2026 ·No. 23290 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/14280
Cite as: The Hon. M.S. Abthul Wazeeth. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 January 2026. No. 23290. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/14280