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Back to steel houses: Swaminathan
View(s):The Government will soon start building prefabricated steel houses for war-affected people in the North and East, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Minister D.M. Swaminathan said.He made the announcement despite a Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (CANC) rejecting the ArcelorMittal project and recommending fresh tenders.
Construction will be kicked off in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya, Minster Swaminathan told journalists at a news conference in Colombo on Thursday. The US$ 1 billion project, which envisages houses at Rs. 2.18 million each, has been categorically rejected by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the Chief Minister of the Northern Province and the Jaffna District Coordinating Committee among many others.
However, Minister Swaminathan said that such houses were already being used in the US and other countries in the West. “I don’t understand why the TNA and Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran have been opposing this programme,” he added. “Maybe it is due to political reasons.”
Last week, the TNA wrote to the President and the Prime Minister saying it was “totally opposed to pre-fabricated steel houses” and calling for traditional brick houses in keeping with the culture and way of life of people in the North and East. The TNA revealed that Minister Swaminathan had been calling up their MPs and urging them to ask for the prefabricated houses in their respective electorate.
All sixteen TNA parliamentarians signed the letter saying they were against the steel houses for reasons of climatic unsuitability, flimsy construction, lack of durability, unjustifiable high cost, etc. The houses were priced at Rs. 2.1 million each.
The Minister is so adamant that the project should go through that he had got his Ministry’s Secretary V. Sivagnanasothy transferred, civil society sources alleged. He was a member of the CANC that rejected the ArcelorMittal project and called for fresh tenders. The committee’s recommendation is awaiting Cabinet assent.
The sources said Mr Sivagnanasothy had supported an alternate proposal for brick houses proposed by civil society based on community acceptance, technical aspects and cost. He was moved out on November 9, 2016.