Hon. (Dr.) V.S. Radhakrishnan

¶ 01 Expressing my thanks to all and to this House, I move the following Adjournment Motion:

¶ 02 “According to reports of the World Bank, UN, and the Central Bank, on indicators such as poverty, education, health, nutrition, infant mortality, and land and home ownership, the plantation regions are the most deprived in the country. Due to recent price hikes of kerosene, rice, and flour, and the increase in electricity tariffs, the already suffering plantation people have fallen into abject misery and have been excluded from Sri Lanka’s national mainstream. During the period of the Social Democratic political camp, we began a progressive journey to bring the plantation people into the national mainstream, especially under our ‘Uva-Hill Country inclusion’ policy.

¶ 03 The key measures we initiated are as follows: 1. Land and home ownership: For the first time in history, through a Cabinet decision and a Bill in Parliament, we launched the ‘Hill Country Seven Perches’ programme to grant people individual houses with land ownership. 2. Indian financial assistance: Through negotiations with the Government of India, we secured a commitment for about 14,000 houses. Today, the value of one house is estimated at Rs. 2.2 million. 3. Local government devolution: To restore long-denied justice to the hill country people, we increased the number of Pradeshiya Sabhas in Nuwara Eliya District to ten. We request Government support to expand these further. 4. Administrative decentralization: By Gazette, we increased the number of District Secretariats, Divisional Secretariats, and Grama Niladhari divisions in plantation areas to ensure the same public administration services available to others are available to the hill country. 5. Amendment to Pradeshiya Sabha Law: We amended reg. 33 of the Pradeshiya Sabha Law which had prevented allocating funds for development in areas where plantation voters reside. 6. Education development: To develop plantation schools, we secured the right for schools to acquire up to two adjacent acres and arranged special teacher appointments. 7. Health: We integrated estate hospitals that were under plantation management into the national health system. 8. Hill Country Authority: Recognizing the underdevelopment of hill country plantation communities, we created a statutory ‘Hill Country Authority’ to address their specific issues and uplift them to be on par with other communities. 9. Income: Our policy held that a ‘daily wage’ is never a permanent solution. The durable solution is to transform plantations fundamentally into cooperatives and make workers shareholders. We worked toward this.

¶ 04 This ‘Hill Country Renaissance’ transformation we began does not appear to have been taken forward by the NPP Government over the past one and a half years. The Government has halted releasing people from the grip of estate management and, instead, has entrenched about 75,000 workers further as modern bonded labour under company domination. This has gravely threatened their right to life. Repression by management has multiplied. Houses have been demolished; violence unleashed. Families in Badulla affected by Cyclone ‘Didwa’, and families in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya, still live in tents.

¶ 05 Therefore, as a responsible Government, intervene immediately, halt violence against hill country people, and resume the journey we began to include the hill country people into the Sri Lankan national mainstream.”

¶ 06 At a meeting chaired by the Minister of Public Security, we clarified several matters, and he agreed on some. I specifically request immediate measures to curb the ongoing intimidation in the hill country.

¶ 07 You know well that land is the key problem of the plantation people. Even a sparrow has a nest, but hill country people have no individual house. First, give them land suitable to build houses. Building the house is secondary—they will manage, or do so with Government support. But land ownership is the crucial issue.

¶ 08 Yesterday, we observed a seven-year-old boy walking a long distance seeking land. We cannot accept this. It appeared he did so due to a developmental challenge. This underlines how central the land issue is for the hill country people.