President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday held a meeting with the relevant officials to look into immediate measures necessary to provide relief for the people affected by inclement weather, landslides and floods.

He discussed with officials about evacuation of people affected from landslide prone and flooded areas, settlement of displaced persons and supply of food and other requirements for the displaced persons.

The President instructed the Sri Lanka Navy to deploy more boats for rescue missions to evacuate stranded people, He told the District Secretaries to carry out relief measures immediately without bothering about financial resources as the government is committed to provide required funds.

President Sirisena also urged the health authorities to look into the health conditions of the affected people and to be vigilant about possible outbreak of diseases until the floods subsided.

During the meeting the President appointed Minister Susil Premajayantha as the Coordinator for the Colombo district to provide relief measures to the affected people in the district. Minister S.B. Dissanayake will also assist in this regard.

President Sirisena gave instructions to establish Disaster Management centres in every district and further instructed to formulate strategies to provide required relief measures to the public subsequent to making inquiries into the prevailing situations every morning with the participation of the District Secretary, political authority and state officials.

He pointed out that it is the responsibility of the media to report accurate information about the disaster conditions arisen with the prevailing adverse weather condition. He requested the media institutions to fulfill their responsibilities appropriately for the welfare of the victims while pointing out any defects in the current program to help them.

Ministers Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Susil Premajayantha, Rajitha Senaratne and S. B. Dissanayake, Secretary to the President, Defense Secretary, Finance Secretary and the Secretaries to the Ministries, Commanders of Tri Forces, Inspector General of Police, District Secretaries and senior public servants participated in this discussion.

Govt. briefs envoys on landslides disaster

Disaster Management Minister Anura Yapa (R) speaks during a press conference in Colombo on 19 May as Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera looks on. Official figures show that 45 people have been killed in weather-related disasters since the weekend and that over 400,000 people have been affected by the floods across many parts of the island.