The Hon. K.V. Samantha Viddyarathna - Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure
The Minister acknowledged the difficulty of acquiring underutilized plantation lands for public purposes, citing long-term agreements with regional plantation companies and examples such as land for Deniyaya Hospital. He said the Government has directed plantation companies to bring such lands into productive use or lease/sub-lease them to capable parties, while state entities including SLSPC, JEDB and Elkaduwa Plantations have begun advertising thousands of acres for lease. He added that further policy measures are being considered against private companies that fail to develop or lease underutilized lands, and requested Members’ cooperation on reforms linked to worker welfare and wages.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Your point is valid. Many underutilized lands exist. The main difficulty is stringent long-term agreements with companies, making acquisition for public use (schools, hospitals) very hard—as seen in securing land for Deniyaya Hospital. Post-cyclone, land needs for public, religious and community purposes increased, but acquiring from RPCs remains difficult.
¶ 02 The President has stated that underutilized lands must be brought into productive use and, where companies cannot develop them, they should lease or sub-lease to capable parties. We have notified plantation companies accordingly. State plantation entities—SLSPC, JEDB and Elkaduwa Plantations—have already advertised thousands of acres for lease; further 5,000 acres will be advertised shortly, transparently.
¶ 03 We are also considering policy measures so that private RPCs that neither develop nor lease underutilized lands may face decisive government action in future. We seek Members’ cooperation to improve workers’ welfare and wages without obstructing necessary reforms.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Wednesday, 18 February 2026 ·No. 23308 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. K.V. Samantha Viddyarathna - Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 18 February 2026. No. 23308. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/20229