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| Tuesday, 1 July 2003 |
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by P.D.A.S. Gunasekera, Ratnapura group correspondent The difficulty and delay in obtaining correct data and records of the loss of lives and property, so far, in the wake of the floods and landslides, in the Ratnapura district had slowed down the relief operations and settlements of the displaced, said the Deputy Minister of Finance Bandula Gunawardena at a relief evaluation conference held at Ratnapura recently. The Governor Saliya Mathew, the Chief Minister SPC Mohan Ellawala, Smallholdings Minister Susantha Punchinilame, members of the PA and JVP, large number of government officials led by the District Secretary, Ratnapura were also present. It was revealed that around 35,000 families had been displaced and over a lakh of people had been reduced to extreme helplessness in the disaster. Apart from this, the houses destroyed had been found to amount to 25,000 according to tentative records of the provincial secretaries. All of them had to be resettled. Minister Bandula Gunawardena said that the government treated the great disaster which hit the five districts of the island, including Ratnapura as a national calamity and designed to step up sources of funds, towards which the Treasury and foreign resources had already been channelled by the departments concerned. Senior members of the UN Commission on assistance to the distressed including Valadimer said that his organization had taken steps to provide assistance on the basis of the data and records available. All organizations including the SPC, other local government institutions and provincial secretarial offices had already participated actively in the relief program, the Minister Bandula Gunawardena acknowledged. The Minister said that attention had been directed towards anti-social activities of the trading community 'making hay while the sun shone' and exploiting the distressed, by palming off food and other necessities unsuitable for human consumption, to make a fast buck, at the cost of the society. He called upon the health authorities and the police to take immediate action against such elements in the district, and promote good social relations of the affected and trading community. The Minister also instructed the Health Services Director, Nimal Edirisinghe to be on the alert to detect the incidence of anti-social activities of traders. Cases of thuggery had been reported in some areas, where assistance had been forcibly removed from the distribution centres. He called upon the police to detect such cases and bring the offenders to book without delay. |
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