The Hon. Mano Ganesan

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I apologize for not addressing today’s main subject because I must bring urgent up-country matters to the Prime Minister’s notice. After the “Titva” storm disaster, up-country people are in dire straits. The President read a lengthy relief list in this House. We were glad to hear: Rs. 25,000 to clean houses after landslides; Rs. 15,000 from the Treasury and Rs. 10,000 from the President’s Fund for schoolchildren. Relief was also promised for livestock farmers, vegetable growers and small traders.

¶ 02 However, only about 30–40 per cent of affected hill-country people have received relief. To those in Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Matale, and Kegalle who feel deprived, please write with details to “Hon. Mano Ganesan, Parliament of Sri Lanka.”

¶ 03 The greatest current need in the hill country is land and housing. The President said those who lost land to landslides will be given alternate land, plus Rs. 5 million to build a house there—totaling Rs. 10 million. Then he launched the “Rebuilding Sri Lanka” housing initiative in Anuradhapura. If he had started it in Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Kandy or Matale, we would have welcomed it. We too are citizens. Otherwise, this looks like apartheid—prove me wrong by acting equally. If Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa victims receive land and Rs. 5 million for houses, why not the hill country?

¶ 04 State plantation lands are state-owned, leased long-term to companies; the Government can take back land if it wishes. Recently, Hon. Sujith Sanjaya Perera raised the land issue in Yatiyantota-Halkolla Estate where people are denied land and left to estate managers—unacceptable. The Government must take responsibility; they are citizens.

¶ 05 Over 10,000 hill-country people in estate line-rooms are still in temporary shelters—the most affected by the disaster. They have no land or houses. Officials—Divisional Secretaries, Grama Niladharis, estate managers, NBRO officers—pressure them to return to unsafe line-rooms where walls have cracked and overhanging slopes may collapse with the next rains. Where will these innocent people go? The Government must immediately create a special mechanism to grant them land.

¶ 06 For hill-country people, the first, second and third needs are land rights. Hon. Prime Minister, you know this as a former social activist. If Rs. 5 million can be given to build houses elsewhere, why not to our people? President Anura Kumara Dissanayake should not offer only fine words; results must follow. You can fool some people for some time, but not all people all the time. Give hill-country people the same “Titva” relief as others. Thank you.