Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-08-01

Providing relief to the people affected by the prevailing dry weather conditions

- Approximately 500,000 families in 17 districts have been affected by the dry weather conditions prevailing in the country and accordingly, the livelihood of the people in those areas has also been severely affected. Having considered the existing situation a relief distribution system should be implemented to provide relief for the families affected due to the drought as in the case of the disaster situations that occurred in the previous years.

Accordingly, the proposal made by H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena, to identify the families who have lost their livelihood due to the severe drought and to provide them dry rations at a cost of Rs.5000/-, per month effective from August, 2017, on the basis of deploying the members of such families for community work and to expeditiously pay compensation for damaged crops under an insurance cover and to continuously implement the programmes of providing drinking water, was approved by the Cabinet.