The Hon. Kitnan Selvaraj
Kitnan Selvaraj supported Hesha Withanage’s Private Member’s Motion on hill-country estate roads while criticizing the UNP’s 1992 privatization of plantations and the absence of binding development plans for estate infrastructure. He said estate-connecting and internal roads remain neglected despite the national road network’s classifications, and argued that past governments and allied hill-country Tamil political figures had failed the community. He stated that the NPP Government is studying hill-country issues and is committed to improving education, housing and transport.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, Hon. Hesha Withanage, who entered Parliament via the SJB with the UNP as mother party, has brought this Private Member’s Motion today. As NPP, we welcome and support it. However, I see this as crocodile tears for the hill-country Tamil community.
¶ 02 In 1992, your mother party, the UNP, handed over 449 plantations to private owners. When they mortgaged them to multinationals, there were no binding development plans. Today you bring this Motion. Sri Lankan roads are categorized — E, A, B, AB, etc. There are 12,567 km of national AB and A-class roads. Estate-connecting roads, internal estate roads, and roads supporting estate economies exist, but many are derelict. It is only now that Hon. Hesha has proposed, and we support it.
¶ 03 For 76 years, regressive rulers kept these roads neglected, aided by “hill-country Tamil stalwarts” who acted as props for those regimes. The NPP Government under Anura Kumara Dissanayake is studying hill-country problems and working to solve them.
¶ 04 [Expunged on the order of the Chair.]
¶ 05 We are committed to building hill-country education, housing and transport. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 7 February 2025 ·No. 1739786070060795 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Kitnan Selvaraj. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 7 February 2025. No. 1739786070060795. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/23115