The Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe

¶ 01 Hon. Member, LRC permits for small residential lots of 10, 15, or 20 perches are ready. However, due to our ongoing inquiries into LRC lands, issuance has been paused. It takes time to regularize this. I take this opportunity to express regret to the affected public. We will, however, fast-track the release of individual residential permits from the LRC. Our probe focuses on large project lands, not on ordinary people’s residential titles. We will clear the backlog quickly and release LRC permits soon.

¶ 02 Regarding the Urumaya program’s free grant, there is a serious issue: those grants carry no conditions. I personally discussed this with several Land Commissioners, a number of Divisional Secretaries experienced in land, and about 10–12 Land Officers, and obtained some written inputs. All say that free grants without conditions are problematic as lands can be abused, sold, or transferred. When we moved to act, officials in the Land Commissioner General’s Department urged us not to proceed with unconditional free grants and to consider alternatives. As such, the free grant under Urumaya has become an issue. We are working on it. About 27,000 deeds have been issued under Urumaya, and many more applications have been received. It is a complex problem, and we are taking expert advice and working to resolve it. We will soon take the necessary steps to issue titles.