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Minister pitches for ArcelorMittal’s steel prefab houses
View(s):Resettlement Ministry Progress Review Meeting
The Resettlement Ministry this week summoned District and Divisional Secretaries and Directors of Planning of the North and East, for a Progress Review meeting in Colombo–and used the event to promote the controversial ArcelorMittal prefabricated (prefab) housing project.
The meeting chaired by Resettlement Minister D.M. Swaminathan, took place on Thursday. Eelam People’s Democratic Party Leader and Jaffna District MP, Douglas Devananda was also present, along with representatives of international steel giant ArcelorMittal.
While Progress Review discussions are usually held at the Ministry premises in Kollupitiya (and is not attended by the Minister), this week’s meeting was held at Renuka Hotel. On most previous occasions, only District Secretaries have been invited.
The conference lasted from 10 am to around 1pm. More than half of it was dedicated to the promotion of prefab housing by Minister Swaminathan and ArcelorMittal agents. They made presentations. Their main thrust was that, the steel prefab houses were ideal for the war-displaced in the North and East.
Cabinet recently approved a Resettlement Ministry proposal to build 6,000 prefab steel houses in the North and East “subject to the allocation of houses being made to the displaced families concerned, on receiving their consent for the same”. But the Ministry has steadfastly refused to offer the beneficiaries the choice between cheaper masonry houses and the expensive prefab ones, in violation of Cabinet decisions. It has only advertised the latter.
These steel dwellings are to be erected by ArcelorMittal which first applied in 2015 to put up 65,000 of them. The proposal is backed by Minister Swaminathan, but has been rejected by a Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee; the Tamil National Alliance; the Northern Provincial Council; District Coordinating Committees; the Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee; a team appointed by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management; local officials and Civil Society groups.