Destruction, stealing of artefacts:

Laws to be strengthened to arrest situation

The government acting on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s directives has decided to take immediate action to arrest the stealing of artefacts which has proliferated on a massive scale countrywide as reported in recent times.

The government has taken steps to tighten laws relating to the destruction and stealing of artefacts by giving more teeth to the existing laws and regulations governing artefacts and archaeological sites.

A communique issued by the Government Information Department said the penalty for the robbery of artifacts according to existing regulations is two years improvement or a Rs 50,000 fine or both.

Under the amended legislation this will be increased to five years imprisonment or Rs two million fine or both several factors which had contributed towards the escalation of these artifact destruction and robberies have already been identified.

They are certain myths circulating among the people and unnecessary media publicity which exaggerated the value of artifacts which led to curiosity among the people, the communique added.