Hon. Mano Ganesan

¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member.

¶ 02 The ruling party MPs, including the Hon. Member for Nuwara Eliya, Mr. Manjula Suraweera Arachchi, spoke well. Our task is to bring to the attention of the Government the issues of the people we represent. When you were in Opposition, you held protests, marches, and strikes to bring people’s issues to Government attention. We, now in Opposition, bring forward the problems of the hill country Indian-origin Tamil people to the Government’s attention. This Parliament is the supreme forum to do so.

¶ 03 We did not pause our work. As the Tamil Progressive Alliance, we started and advanced this journey. The Hon. Manjula Suraweera Arachchi said, “We will start from where you stopped.” Good—do it. We first brought a Cabinet decision and a law in Parliament to commence individual housing on seven perches for hill country people. Under then President Ranil Wickremesinghe, when Hon. Jeevan Thondaman was Minister, seven perches became ten—make it twenty now. That is positive; development must advance.

¶ 04 We negotiated with India and brought first 4,000 and then 10,000 houses. We completed 4,000; 10,000 remain—please complete them. Today each house costs about Rs. 2.8 million; we secured Indian funding.

¶ 05 To the Nuwara Eliya MP: earlier local bodies were ill-structured—Ambagamuwa PS had 250,000 population; Nuwara Eliya PS too had 250,000. We restructured and created ten Pradeshiya Sabhas in Nuwara Eliya so services of the basic political-administrative unit reached people. We also amended Section 33 of the Pradeshiya Sabha Act which had prevented allocating funds for development in plantation voter areas. Further, by Gazette we created new Divisional Secretariats and new GN divisions in Nuwara Eliya. Still, Nuwara Eliya has the largest populations per Secretariat and GN—subdivide them; align to about 500 families per GN as elsewhere, so services actually reach people. Increase Pradeshiya Sabhas from 10 to 20, and Divisional Secretariats from 5 to 20. This is the journey we began.

¶ 06 Reports of the World Bank and the Central Bank show these people are the most deprived. It is due to a dark history; do not dump every problem on us—we also can respond. The JVP’s fifth class syllabus once portrayed hill country people as symbols of Indian imperialism; that created wrong perceptions among Sinhala people and now impedes land rights. I don’t wish to rake it up—understand this truth.

¶ 07 We created the ‘Hill Country Authority’ to address social, economic, political, and cultural backwardness—use it. The law and mechanism exist; empower it and fund it properly to uplift livelihoods—please do so.

¶ 08 We brought estate hospitals under the national system, and authorized schools to acquire two adjacent acres—done by Cabinet and law, not mere talk. But five years cannot undo 200 years of bondage. We started the hill country renaissance; do not socialize the lie that nobody did anything. Continue what we began—that is all we ask. No need to fight.

¶ 09 We have discussed with the President. Earlier today, at our request, a special meeting chaired by the Minister of Public Security, Hon. Ananda Wijepala, was held on recent hill country issues. I came here from that meeting. We agreed that no estate company or anybody can lay hands on hill country people; complaints must go to the Police; only the Police can enforce the law—no one can take law into their own hands. This is good, and it came because we brought matters to Government attention. This is a time for Government and Opposition to work together. Our people are the most deprived; let us act together.