News
Rebuild your walls, CMC tells Kollupitiya residents
View(s):Admits walls were on private land and should not have been pulled down; compensation to be discussed
The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) this week asked residents living in Kollupitiya to rebuild the walls the authorities pulled down last week, admitting they had made a mistake.
Angry residents had complained to Colombo Mayor M.J.M.Muzamil after workers broke down the walls in a move to link Galle Road to the Marine Drive, in spite of residents informing them that the walls were on private land and in some cases pending litigation.
 |
 Residents preparing to rebuild walls that were needlessly brought down by the CMC. Pix by Susantha Liyanawatte |
The Municipality has offered to pay damages while sending an engineer to assess the damages, the Sunday Times learns.
Last week CMC workers backed by police used bulldozers to breakdown parapet walls on six lanes in Kollupitiya.
Meanwhile Kollupitiya Police OIC Mangala Dehideniya said since the CMC had requested the presence of police for the security of its workers they had provided personnel.
A resident of Sirikotha Lane Mohammed Althaf said they were not given notice before the walls were brought down.
“We complained to the Mayor, who in turn ordered an inquiry. We were told to rebuild the wall. We have already spent over Rs 100,000 to build the wall. We hope to obtain some compensation for the damages,” he said adding the lane he lives on only leads to private residences and the CMC had no authority to breakdown the wall.
Mohamed Makeen, another resident said he had put up a fence which was also pulled down by the CMC workers. Following complaints to the CMC they admitted that since it is private land they cannot open it for the public. We are now compelled to construct our fence at our expense,” he charged.
Mathews Keegal told the Sunday Times he was still awaiting an official response for his complaint against tearing down a wall that stood across a private land. Meanwhile Mayor Muzamil acknowledged that CMC had made a mistake by breaking down walls in private lanes, over which CMC had no authority .
“It is only after we broke the walls down did we realise that some of the roads were running through private lands and even the roads had been cut through their own lands,” he said. Mr. Muzamil said both the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Minister A.H.M. Fowzie had visited the area, adding that the CMC will estimate the damages and pay the costs
He said, in future only public roads would be connected. Deputy Mayor Titus Perera who last week told the Sunday Times that the residents had been informed of the move, this week admitted that the CMC had made a mistake in giving notice to some of the houses. “We found that some of the walls were on private land,” he added.
He said the CMC would be meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issues including the payment of compensation.
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus