Cabinet approves Rs. 8.4 b to build houses for poor

• A family from each Grama Niladhari Division to be given Rs. 600,000 

Cabinet has approved providing Rs. 8.4 billion, broken into a payment of Rs. 600,000 to one family from each Grama Niladhari Division countrywide, to build or repair over 14,000 houses.  

A selected family from each of the country’s 14,022 Grama Niladhari divisions will be given a sum of Rs. 600, 000 to either build a new house or repair an existing one, according to a hand-out on Cabinet decisions by the Government Information Department. The Cabinet decision was taken last week.  

The Ministry of Urban Development, Water Supply and Housing Facilities has proposed to inaugurate ‘A house to the village – a future to the country’ program in the year 2020 as an accelerated as well as a sustainable development program for realising the objectives of fulfilling the sustainable development objectives through enabling every family in Sri Lanka to live in a convenient house which is a declaration in the policy plan ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’.

Through the community committees comprised of people from the rural level political authority/leadership, State officers, civil organisations with the coordination of district and divisional secretariat level political leadership and state officers, it is scheduled to implement this program islandwide from the month of January.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal submitted jointly by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as the Minister of Urban Development, Water Supply and Housing Facilities for providing the provisions for construction of 14,022 houses based on providing instalment – wise construction progress followed by a donation of Rs. 600,000 for either construction or enhancement of a house for a selected family subject to the priority of each Grama Niladhari division, as the first phase of this program.