Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-01-30

Taking action in respect of the encroachments in the Railway reservations

- The total extent of the railway reserved lands belonging to the Sri Lanka Railways is about 14,000 acres. Out of which, around 10% of lands has been provided to various stakeholders on lease basis and the rest of 80% of the said lands are encroachments. The majority of these encroachers is the general public and among them, there are a few officers presently serving and as well as few retired officers in the Sri Lanka Railways. It is an unhealthy precedent to allow the railway employees themselves to occupy the lands belonging to the Sri Lanka Railways unlawfully and thereby causing a loss of tax revenue to the Government.

As such, the proposal made by Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, to appoint a Cabinet Sub Committee headed by himself, comprising of the following Ministers as members to examine the possibility of adopting a fair and concessionary measure in respect of these railway employees and to submit a report to the Cabinet, within three (03) months, was approved by the Cabinet.

* Hon. Mangala Samaraweera,
Minister of Finance and Mass Media;

* Hon. Ranjith Madduma Bandara,
Minister of Public Administration and Management; and

* Hon. Gayantha Karunathilaka,
Minister of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms.