Cabinet sub-committee to probe impact of Uma Oya project

A Cabinet sub-committee is set to be appointed to look into those affected by the ‘Uma Oya’ project, Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure, Samantha Vidyaratne said.

Accordingly, the relevant Cabinet sub-committee is tasked with making recommendations to the Government and present them to the Cabinet by the end of February, he said.

This decision was reached during a meeting held at the Ministry of Agriculture recently (07), under the direction of the President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

In the meeting, attention was focused on issues such as providing relief to those who have not yet received compensation for land and property acquired for the ‘Uma Oya’ project, compensating those whose houses were damaged due to subsidence and explosions during construction, providing crop compensation to those who have not received it, supplying clean water to those who lost access to drinking water due to water projects, paying overdue rent to tenants, compensating those whose houses were completely destroyed, taking measures to address environmental damage after a thorough study, constructing the Thalpitigala reservoir to provide irrigation water and electricity for the people of the low-lying areas of the Uma Oya valley, and conducting a full investigation into fraud, corruption, irregularities, and illegal activities related to the entire ‘Uma Oya’ project.

Furthermore, the issues of erosion and soil degradation occurring in the central hills due to this project were also thoroughly discussed.

During the meeting, Minister K.D. Lal Kantha has suggested that it would be appropriate to appoint a Cabinet sub-committee to make recommendations to the government to achieve these objectives.