The Hon. Anura Karunathilaka - Minister of Urban Development, Construction and Housing

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, historically, rulers have enacted laws to consolidate their rule. In the British period, the 1840 Crown Lands Encroachments Ordinance was to appropriate paddy lands to the Crown. In 1897, the Waste Lands Ordinance facilitated taking traditional agricultural lands from farmers to grant for tea and rubber plantations. In 2005, Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and Powers) Regulations were brought through an Extraordinary Gazette.

¶ 02 Similarly, the 18th Amendment was intended to empower the President unethically. Such laws were passed for power consolidation. Even after their tenure, rulers enacted laws to live off public funds — for example, the law on entitlements of former Presidents and their widows, which we recently repealed.

¶ 03 At the same time, many necessary laws for the people were neglected, whether deliberately or due to carelessness. This Bill to establish the National Building Research Institute is one such long-neglected necessity. As the NPP Government, we are tasked both with repealing bad decrees and enacting necessary ones. This Bill is for the people.

¶ 04 The history goes back to the mid-1980s, when society discussed fast-tracking development, providing technical guidance, and coordinating services. A soil testing lab was set up within the State Engineering Corporation about 41 years ago, launching this institution.

¶ 05 About 30 per cent of Sri Lanka is susceptible to landslides across 14 districts. The NBRI will identify and map such areas, assess geotechnical instability and potential landslide probabilities, declare danger zones, issue early warnings, and prescribe engineering criteria for construction in such areas. It can also order evacuation of unsafe buildings, determine habitability, and support air quality monitoring by setting and reporting thresholds.

¶ 06 Thus, this is an institution very close to people’s lives, presenting criteria to save lives. Unfortunately, it lacked a proper legal basis; this Bill provides that legal personality and authority.

¶ 07 The Bill sets out mandate, objectives, governance, management, funding and general provisions comprehensively.

¶ 08 I also wish to address a national issue not directly in the Bill: current unrest among CEB workers. A previous government passed a law to split the CEB into 12 entities to facilitate privatization. To halt that, we brought a new law creating five 100 per cent state-owned companies instead of 12. Some groups, without understanding, now agitate with 21 demands.

¶ 09 Reviewing those 21 demands, many are already covered in the new law or addressed by Board decisions. For example, the first demand — payment by 15 September of the 2023 unused sick leave benefit — has Board approval. The medical assistance scheme has already been decided to be increased by 50 per cent.

¶ 10 One demand calls for safeguarding trade union rights allegedly curtailed. But the law itself states that existing benefits and rights of CEB workers transfer intact to the new companies. Another demand seeks to raise the Rs. 500,000 cap on voluntary retirement gratuity. Their proposed formula, if accepted, would cost an additional Rs. 200 billion for VRS payouts. Who will bear that? The innocent consumers and industry would have to absorb it through tariffs.

¶ 11 Another demand asks for issuing letters on VRS timing and criteria before 15 September, whereas the law gives employees until 27 October to indicate their choices; demanding letters before that is unreasonable. Some demands even ask to remove the CEB Chairman or the Ministry Secretary — such political demands cannot be accepted as trade union rights.

¶ 12 We have removed the risk of privatizing the CEB and ensured all five companies remain 100 per cent state-owned. Employees can continue to serve or opt for voluntary retirement. No benefits or rights will be cut. I assure you.

¶ 13 On employment: the cited figure of 49.7 per cent is for May 2025; in May last year it was 47.7 per cent. As economic growth improves and investments come, employment has increased by 2 percentage points over the year. Comparisons must be year-on-year.

¶ 14 Recruitment to the public service was frozen in 2022-2023. Now Cabinet approval has been given to recruit close to 70,000 across ministries and agencies, while private sector opportunities improve with economic expansion.

¶ 15 We will enact necessary laws, repeal bad ones, and bring new ones where needed. Let us together build a prosperous, beautiful country and life for our people. Thank you.