The President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake chairs the committee which also includes an Additional Secretary to the Defence Ministry, the Land Commissioner General, the Chairman of the Ranaviru Seva Authority and a representative of the Attorney General’s Department.
Government lands are to be given to Tri-Forces, Police and Civil Defence Department personnel who died, went missing or got disabled during active service and those who retired or still on active duty.
Although the programme of providing land to war heroes was started several times before, it was not implemented successfully and the President has appointed the above committee after considering the matter.
It is the responsibility of the relevant committee to consider the role of providing land to war heroes as per the President’s order and arrange work promptly.
The Cabinet on Monday approved the resolution by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to take action to revise the existing methodology in releasing land to war heroes at present.
Circular instructions have been issued by the Land Commissioner General from time to time on the method to follow when distributing residential lands for war heroes of the three Armed Forces, Sri Lanka Police and the Civil Defence Department who sacrificed their lives in active service, disappeared and disabled, retired and also engaged in active service at the time.
Within the methodology approved at present, it is apparent that the relief is not sufficient to the war heroes and the actual economic value of those lands are not envisaged due to limiting factors existing in the legal documents with conditions of ownership for the lands enjoyed.
