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Estate dwellers to get Govt. houses, land deeds

21 Sep 2022

  • Estate workers protest in Hatton over cost of living, protest against Maskeliya plantation reaches negotiation stage
  By Dinitha Rathnayake   Minister of Urban Development and Housing Prasanna Ranatunga said in Parliament yesterday (20) that the Government is working to build houses for all those living in estate housing. He also mentioned that the Government is focusing on providing land deeds to them.  He stated this while replying to a question raised in Parliament by Samagi Jana Balawegaya Matale District Opposition MP Rohini Kumari Wijerathna Kavirathna. “The registers for this are prepared by estates. After receiving that document, they are given Indian aid or Government allocations to build houses. We will not be able to build houses completely, but we are of the stance that the houses should be built according to the allocations received,” Ranatunga added. Meanwhile, estate workers took to the streets of Hatton Town over the last weekend under the banner of “struggle of the famine”, and demanded a reduction in the prices of food commodities and medicines. They also requested wages that suit the cost of living during the hour-long agitation, and also queried the fate of the nutritional pack promised for pregnant females, while calling for an end to the burdensome privileges granted to Ministers.  “Among us, the plantation workers, who are the lowest among us in economic terms, eat only once a day, and in this situation, they will have to die of hunger soon,” the protestors claimed. Elsewhere, the Ceylon Workers Congress’s (CWC) trade union action against the Maskeliya plantation last week, which they claim seeks to oppress plantation workers and exploit their labour, has been a success, according to them. The CWC claimed it has presented several solutions, resulting in the Maskeliya plantation agreeing to negotiations. CWC Nuwara Eliya District MP and General Secretary Jeevan Thondaman who participated in this dialogue, speaking to The Morning, said: “We want to stop the exploitation of labour of our workers and we will take trade union action against such. Also, during the negotiations, we made various demands for Rs. 1,000 to be declared the daily wage for the plantation workers.”


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