The Agrarian Services Dept. has given 406 acres of Muthurajawela land to Melwatte Property Development for a housing project. The land permitted to be reclaimed is paddy land, but the recommendation has been obtained by claiming it to be otherwise. That has been done with the support of the district’s assistant agrarian commissioner M.N.L. Sandamali, who incidentally is a school friend of the president.
Following opposition by environmental groups and the media, the president suddenly woke up and banned the reclamation. That means the country’s first citizen and the environment minister was unaware of what was happening. It was the Environment Ministry under him and the Agrarian Services Dept. under his party’s general secretary Duminda Dissanayake that gave the permission.
A leader should be there to prevent problems, not to give solutions only after being poked and pointed out the problems. He kept silent while land reclamation was permitted illegally, and acted only after a public outcry. It is folly if he believes that he will gain marks from that.
Ashika Brahmana
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