Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-12-06

Provision of Land Ownership and Proper Housing for the Plantation Community

- At present, there are about 256,533 families living in the Estates belonging to the Regional Plantation Companies and 9,025 families in the Estates owned by the Government. The number of houses constructed presently for these families are around 33,000 and the remaining families live in the line rooms and the temporary sheds. In accordance with the Government policy of handing over land ownership, the joint proposal made by Hon. U. Palani Digambaram, the Minister of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development, Hon. Navin Dissanayake, the Minister of Plantation Industries and Hon. John Amarathunga, the Minister of Lands, to grant transferable deeds for 07 perches of land which could be offered to banks as security to the legal residents in estates and to release the lands identified as not prone to the risk of landslides from the Regional Plantation Companies and other State Institutions, was approved by the Cabinet.