Thousand homes for the resettled

Nethali STRUYS

The Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Ministry in collaboration with the Resettlement Ministry began the construction of 1,000 homes for those resettled in the Northern Province on Wednesday.

Each district will be allocated 200 houses while each house will be allocated Rs 300,000.

Out of this amount Rs 100,000 will be as a donation while Rs 200,000 will be as loans at a very low interest rate.

Each house will be built within a 500 square feet area and the project is to be completed by the end of the year.

“Although the Tamil Diaspora collected funds for a long time they have not spent even a single cent on resettling people. All they want is to use the problems in the Northern Province for their benefit” said Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Minister Wimal Weerawansa.

The minister further said based on the success of this project, the Ministry is looking forward to implement more such projects in the future.

All ongoing development activities are carried out by the government to uplift the living standards of the people in the northern province, he pointed out.

Resettlement Minister Gunaratne Weerakoon pointed out that since the Ministry does not possess the required house building technical knowledge it has decided to jointly carryout the project with the Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Ministry.

He further said that since the people in the North are persevering and industrious in nature, if they were provided with a house to live they will definitely raise their living standards.

The number of displaced families living in welfare centers are around 2000 to 3000 and we will look into resettling them in permanent houses very soon,” the minister added.