50,000 houses to accommodate shanty dwellers

President chairs discussion to regularise CMC activities

COLOMBO: A programme to construct 50,000 houses to accommodate shanty dwellers is in progress, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

The President also instructed officials to make arrangements to remove unauthorised constructions within the city without any discrimination and emphasised the need to keep the city beautiful.

President Rajapaksa said so when Colombo Municipal Councillors pointed out that two third of the urban population in the Municipal limits yet live in shanties when he chaired a discussion at Temple Trees on Thursday to regularise activities at the Colombo Municipal Council to provide an efficient service to the citizens, a release from the Presidential Secretariat said yesterday.

Western Province Governor Alavi Mowlana, Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Minister A.H.M. Fowzie, Labour Minister Mervyn Silva, Colombo Mayor Uvais Mohammed Imithiaz, and Deputy Mayor A.K.M.S. Rajendran and Colombo Municipal Councillors attended the discussion.

The veracity of news relating to the cleanliness of the City as reported in newspapers, administrative problems confronting the Municipal Council, scarcity of officers to perform duties in Tamil language, scarcity of sanitary labourers, security condition of the city, unproductive use of bare lands within the city, scarcity of drinking water and the shortcomings relating to the sewage system were among issues that were discussed.

The President called upon Western Province Chief Minister Reginald Cooray to give guidance to the Council to regularize its functioning.

President Rajapaksa also instructed to submit to him quickly a list of shortcomings in the Council and arrange a work-shop to train councillors in their tasks as most present members are newcomers to the Council.