Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-01-17

Providing relief to persons adversely affected due to the acquisition of land for the Yan Oya Reservoir Development Project

- By now, 85% of the construction work of the Yan Oya Reservoir Development Project connecting the Anuradhapura and the Trincomalee Districts has been completed. Around 242 families to be affected due to the impact of the project have to be evacuated from their places of residence expeditiously before commencement of filling the reservoir with water. As such, taking into consideration, the need to provide the families affected with more conducive living facilities, the proposal made by Hon. Vijith Vijayamuni Zoysa, the Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, to provide the above families with relief measures such as granting them financial aid to facilitate them to construct houses with the basic needs resembling their present houses, deviating from the existing provision, paying compensation on a suitable methodology to the encroaches who have developed and are in possession of government lands earmarked to be acquired, awarding compensation for crop damage, for those who could not continue with their seasonal cultivation as a result of the implementation of the project and evacuating them from their places of residence expeditiously and complete the work of the project within the scheduled time frame, was approved by the Cabinet.