Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-02-03

Construction of 4,000 Houses for the Plantation Community in the Uva and Central Provinces, under the Indian Government Grant Programme

- As per a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Governments of Sri Lanka and India in the year 2012, the arrangements have been made to construct 4,000 houses for the plantation community in the Uva and Central Provinces, within the next three years from 2016-2019. As the first phase of this endeavour, the preliminary activities related to the construction of 1,134 houses have been completed and activities pertaining to the construction of the rest of the 2,866 houses also have been commenced. Each house is to be constructed in a land area of 7 perches with a floor area of 550 square feet and the total cost to be incurred for a house would be Rs.1,120,000.00. In selecting beneficiaries for this purpose, the priority is given to the families who live in landslide affected and landslide prone areas and the families living in the fire affected line-rooms. Accordingly, in order to proceed with this project, the proposal made by Hon. U. Palani Digambaram, the Minister of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development, to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding which clearly outlines the responsibilities and the functions of the respective parties, between the Governments of India and Sri Lanka, was approved by the Cabinet.