The Hon. Anuradha Jayaratne, Attorney-at-Law
Anuradha Jayaratne raised the issue of a 60-perch land parcel originally acquired in 1990 for a court complex and prison, later allocated to the CEB but now available for expansion of lawyers’ chambers after CEB and UDA agreement. He said the current requirement for junior lawyers to pay Rs. 62 million upfront is impractical, noting comparable lawyers’ complexes elsewhere were not subject to such charges. He asked the Minister to intervene and allow the land to be provided on a fair monthly lease based on government valuation instead of an upfront payment.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Minister, this land parcel was acquired in 1990 for constructing the court complex and a prison. Later, about four to five years ago, 60 perches from the same area we identified for lawyers’ chambers was given to the CEB, but CEB has now agreed to relocate to another land, and UDA too has indicated agreement through a Cabinet Paper, so that portion can be used to expand lawyers’ chambers. However, the current government valuation requires junior lawyers to pay Rs. 62 million upfront for these 60 perches. This is impractical when they are not asking for free land but to build with their own funds, similar to Gampola, Galle and Matara lawyers’ complexes which were not charged such amounts. Will you intervene so that, instead of a Rs. 62 million upfront “buy-back”, a fair monthly lease at government valuation can be offered?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 ·No. 1749010823009957 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Anuradha Jayaratne, Attorney-at-Law. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 20 May 2025. No. 1749010823009957. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/25750