‘President will never eject under-privileged from Colombo’

Sandasen Marasinghe and Ishara Mudugamuwa

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will never eject under privileged families from Colombo, stated Urban Development Authority Chairman Nimal Perera, commenting on a recent media report on the Apple Watte housing project.

The UDA chairman said that providing permanent houses for under-privileged families in slums were included in the urban development plan of Colombo of 1998.

Though there were housing projects such as the Thirasara Purawara, Pelin Mandira, Kusum Niwasa started under various governments, only about 2,000 houses were constructed during a period of 15 years.

These housing schemes were not successful in solving the housing problem of the under-privileged families and the trend to construct unauthorized houses increased day by day.

Following a survey conducted in 2010, the government identified 68,794 families in 1,500 colonies in Colombo.

Accordingly, more than 50 percent of Colombo residents lived in these colonies.