Compensation for Grandpass, Kamburupitiya fire victims

Rohan MATHES

Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena yesterday pledged Government intervention in compensating the victims of the fires at Kamburupitiya and Grandpass.

Addressing journalists at the weekly Cabinet press briefing at the Government Information Department Auditorium in Narahenpita, Abeywardena stated that the total damage and the accruing losses from these two disasters where over eight shops in Kamburupitiya and the petrol filling station and the bowser in Grandpass had been fully gutted had been estimated at around Rs. 200 million.

The affected shop-owners who have become destitute overnight, are not covered by any insurance policy. Under such circumstances, the Government too is unable to assist them directly in awarding appropriate compensation legally, he said.

However, on compassionate grounds and as a gesture of goodwill, the Government with the assistance of Ministers Dulles Alahapperuma and Rishard Bathuideen have discussed this in Parliament. They had decided to present a special Cabinet paper and get it approved after President Mahinda Rajapaksa returns to the island. It is believed that these measures would offer the victims much relief, Abeywardena said.

Referring to the recent ‘crossover’ of the four SLMC Ministers to the Opposition, he categorically stated that the Muslim community has never been side-lined or marginalised in any way by the present Government. Their rights had always been protected and ensured by the present Government, he said.

President Rajapaksa in particular, had always spearheaded the Palestine cause and been a cherished friend of the international Muslim community. For this reason, Iran had pledged President Rajapaksa over US $ 1.5 billion in aid.

The liberation of the East from the clutches of the LTTE and the re-settlement of the Muslim community therein, was per se, a great solace and achievement for the Muslim community in Sri Lanka.

“Under these circumstances, we propose to President Rajapaksa, that the best available option now is to go for a General Election and get the consent of the people once again, to proceed with the policies carried out by His government,” he added.