The Hon. Dammika Patabendi - Minister of Environment
The Minister supported the Second Reading of the Bill to establish the National Building Research Institute, stating that it would give legal status to the National Building Research Organization, which had operated under a circular since 1984. He argued that the proposed law would make the institution more orderly, regulated, and efficient, and contrasted the Government’s action within its first year with the previous lack of legislation. He also cited major landslide disasters in Kegalle in 2016 and national landslide deaths in 2017 to underline the need for a stronger institutional framework.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 [4.05 p.m.]
¶ 02 Hon. Presiding Member, thank you for the opportunity to speak at the Second Reading of the Bill to establish the National Building Research Institute. Since 1984, for 41 years, the National Building Research Organization operated only under a circular. With the Bill gazetted on July 17, 2025, we convert it into the National Building Research Institute by law. Once passed, it will be a more orderly, regulated, and efficient institution. The Opposition asks what we have done within a year. They governed for decades but left NBRO under a circular; within our first year we have brought the Bill to give it legal status.
¶ 03 On May 17, 2016, Kegalle experienced a tragic day—25 landslides, including the massive Saammasara Kanda slide in Aranayake, which claimed 127 lives and destroyed about 75 houses. On the same day, in Bulathkohupitiya, a landslide killed 17. In 2017 alone, 262 people died due to landslides, with 1,985 persons in Kegalle displaced. (Speech continues.)
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 23 September 2025 ·No. 1758876121024768 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Dammika Patabendi - Minister of Environment. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 September 2025. No. 1758876121024768. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/15614