The Hon. Aravinda Senarath - Deputy Minister of Land and Irrigation
On behalf of the Minister, the Deputy Minister stated that the Wellakkal Thottam farmers’ organization had reported damage to a low-water crossing and road and requested temporary repairs. He said the Head Office asked the Ampara Irrigation Director in November 2022 to prepare estimates and include the work in the 2023 Annual Work Programme, but no estimate was received due to funding constraints, shortage of technical staff, and prioritization of urgent irrigation works for Maha and Yala seasons. He added that the road and low-water crossing have been included in the 2026 priority list, with funds expected to be allocated.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, I reply:
¶ 02 (a) (i) The Wellakkal Thottam farmers’ organization informed of the damage to the low-water crossing and road and requested temporary remedies. (ii) By letter DI/AM/WG/AP/002/2022 dated 28.11.2022, the Director (Assets Management) of the Head Office asked the Ampara Irrigation Director to submit estimates. (iii) The same letter requested inclusion in the 2023 Annual Work Programme.
¶ 03 (b) (i) The estimate has not been received. (ii) Although included for 2023 priorities, due to lack of allocations, shortage of technical staff, and prioritizing urgent works to ensure water for Maha and Yala seasons, estimates were not prepared. (iii) The road and low-water crossing are included in the 2026 priority list and funds are expected to be allocated.
¶ 04 (c) Does not arise.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 3 March 2026 ·No. 23335 ·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/14807
Cite as: The Hon. Aravinda Senarath - Deputy Minister of Land and Irrigation. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 3 March 2026. No. 23335. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/14807