The Hon. Imran Maharoof
Hon. Imran Maharoof raised concerns about a land handover in Kinniya for tourism, noting public confusion in Trincomalee about whether tourism development may be linked to increased Israeli arrivals, especially following the Deputy Minister’s visit to Israel. He said elephant movements affect much of the district, including areas with educational institutions, and urged the Government to address the difficulties faced by students. He requested that any error in the land decision be corrected and that the possibility of continuing educational activities at the site be examined.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, as the Hon. Deputy Minister says, there are many areas in Trincomalee where elephants roam. Several educational institutions in the district are also located in such areas; we cannot single this one out. The handing over of this land in Kinniya to the tourism sector, together with the Deputy Minister’s recent visit to Israel following the December decision, has created confusion among the people in our district—whether, like Arugam Bay, there is going to be an Israeli-driven impact in Trincomalee as well. Are we developing tourism in Trincomalee to increase Israeli arrivals? That is the doubt among the public. If we wanted to play politics, we could do so with this too.
¶ 02 Our students are in a very difficult situation. Elephant movements affect about 80 percent of the district. We ask the Government to provide a solution. If an error occurred, correct it and see if there is a possibility to proceed with educational activities there. That is all we ask; we have no need to politicize this matter.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 22 January 2026 ·No. 23203 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/22420
Cite as: The Hon. Imran Maharoof. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 January 2026. No. 23203. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/22420