“Adults and children are starving. If this goes on, these people will starve. There is no way to do a job, there is no place to do that, there is no land to farm, the children are starving, the adults are suffering because of the houses that were lied to.” Finding this story we heard, we went to a village called Zahiru village in Godakawelatenna village in the Hatangala Grama Niladhari Division which belongs to the Weligepola Divisional Secretariat Division in the Ratnapura District.
This village has been built under the concept of Gam Udawa 2017. But when we went to this village we did not see any dawn. All the elephants heard was the plight of the oppressed people who had no way to repay their debts, children or their own stomachs and no proper jobs and even mortgages to the bank. Although it is a good idea to build houses for people in extreme poverty who do not have permanent jobs, it is important to pay attention to how they manage their lives when such a large number of people are settled in one place.
There are about 22 houses in this village but only 17 families live there. There can be no fixed income earners in these 17 families. On a 20-perch plot of land, about 15 miles [15 km] from the city, there is no bus or other means of transportation. There are about 100 members living in Sahirugama. They say that before the housing scheme was launched, the people of their choice at the time informed them that the houses would be provided free of charge and that they would build the houses with their own money and then gradually repay the money spent on their houses. He sold his land and settled in this place. But a few days later it was said that the money given was a loan and it is said that they had already built half of the houses in this place. It is said that after that, each of the government guarantors had to take these housing loans as collateral.
However, at present the people here are living a bitter life. The hope of settling people in this way may have been for their own good. But if these people had been given these loans to build houses where they are, they would not have suffered so much. Therefore, the people of this village are requesting the Hon. President to write off the non-performing housing loans and provide them with relief.
Ratnapura District Public Servants. There may be other such villages in the area. You can use your power in Parliament to look into this and provide relief. All parties and oppositions can look into this and take action. They also demand that it be done.
Ravana Note.
In order to rebuild this broken society with Kovid, it is necessary to write off the debts incurred by at least Rs. 2.5 million. In general, cutting off such money from everyone will not be a small narrowing of the eyeballs they receive. Also, if it is cut off, it should be prohibited to take loans from banks or other institutions again. Then they use simple methods to survive. The relief to these people from the write-offs of loans taken by all public and private sector employees as well as retirees across the country is not insignificant. It will be unique in relieving their suffering.
