The Hon. (Mrs.) Hiruni Wijesinghe, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I thank Hon. Lal Premanath for bringing this Motion to Parliament: to put to public use all buildings constructed under “development projects” that remain unused.

¶ 02 This recalls the era of so-called “wonders of Asia,” when buildings sprang up everywhere without assessing whether villagers could benefit, access them, or whether they had genuine economic value or local necessity. Many were built to pocket commissions, not to serve their intended purposes, and were then abandoned.

¶ 03 Thousands of such buildings exist. Before our Government was formed, these empty buildings housed only stray dogs, cats and bats. Meanwhile, in reality, there are unmet needs. In education, some children still study in temporary huts. In health, certain hospitals are overcrowded, with patients even under beds or seated on chairs for days. In such a context, these abandoned buildings have now fallen to us as a Government to repurpose—for tourism, education, and general public benefit.

¶ 04 In my electorate of Chilaw (Halawatha), we found at the General Hospital that patients were on floors and chairs while several multi-storey structures were 60–70 percent complete and abandoned under PPP-style arrangements. Public funds amounting to millions and billions of rupees were spent, and buildings inside hospital premises were handed to others. Our Government intervened, cancelled such agreements and has allocated substantial funds to complete the remaining works.

¶ 05 You may also recall the many paddy stores across the country where grass grew taller than a person. Now they have been cleaned and put back to use, rescuing national assets from waste and repurposing them for Government needs.

¶ 06 Before we took office, Sri Lanka had one of the largest cabinets in the world, with numerous ministry-name-plastered buildings in Colombo occupied by only a handful of officers. We are now identifying such properties and putting them to productive use.

¶ 07 I also recall the Volkswagen-type industrial plants that stalled. I am happy to note that Rs. 1,300 billion has been allocated to complete halted buildings to at least a standards-compliant, usable level, and implementation is underway. In an era when no coherent policy on state buildings existed, our Government has compiled an inventory of municipal, urban council and pradeshiya sabha buildings and is establishing a national data system.

¶ 08 Thank you again to Hon. Lal Premanath for this Motion. I conclude.