The Hon. (Mrs.) Geetha Herath, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Hon. Minister, within the Kurunegala District, in the Polpithigama Divisional Secretariat area, around the Irudeniyaya Upper Lands Project, approximately 25 villages in 8 Grama Niladhari Divisions are home to about 3,500 families. The people have been stably settled for 60 to 70 years within lands you identified as belonging to the wildlife and forest conservation zones, cultivating coconut. To release these lands to the people and to strengthen the Kahalla-Pallekele Reserve, a long-standing struggle was led for decades at the local level by our Namal Karunaratne, Deputy Minister, under his leadership.

¶ 02 As a result of that struggle, a special committee has now been appointed at the Ministry level and is deliberating. The Secretary to the Ministry of Environment, as well as the Director-Generals of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Department of Forest Conservation, are members of this committee and are working on it. The committee members have also visited and inspected the land. Roughly 3,500 families are affected by this issue.