The Special Report

3rd December 2000

Ministers clash and livelihoods crumble

Tempers rise as walls come tumbling down

Ministers clash and livelihoods crumble

By Chris Kamalendran and Chandani Kirinde

The demolition of a number of illegal constructions in the city of Colombo last week has resulted in political fallout within the ruling party with Urban Development, Construction and Public Utilities Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Highways Minister A.H.M.Fowzie at loggerheads over how the matter should be handled.

Labour Minister Alavi Moulana too was displeased with the method in which the demolitions were carried out although the PA's Colombo district MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra said he fully backed Minister Samaraweera's move to remove illegal constructions.

Minister Fowzie said it was a human problem and needed to be handled in a more sensitive manner.

"This is wrong thinking. What is the hurry in doing this? There are more important problems than this affecting the country," said Minister Fowzie in an interview with The Sunday Times.

On the other hand, Minister Samaraweera told reporters last week that he was not willing to play to the gallery and was ready to make the unpopular move for the betterment of the majority of the city dwellers.

He said that all unauthorized buildings in Colombo would be demolished in the first phase of the project before it moves into other areas of the country.

The Urban Development Ministry has said that the existence of such structures were a threat to public security, planned development, drainage systems and also encouraged epidemics, crime and vice.

However Mr.Fowzie said that by hurriedly tearing down these structures and leaving many a people unemployed could result in such people turning to crime and vice as a means of making a living.

The main grouse of the Colombo district MPs is that they were not consulted before the hurried demolition took place and that it was the livelihoods of their electors that have been affected by this move.

"The day Minister Samaraweera starts demolishing buildings in the Matara town, then he will realize the problem," Mr. Fowzie said.

Mr.Fowzie said he had never encouraged this kind of encroachment on state land for political reasons and was all for the removal of such constructions but it should only be done after alternative space was found for the people to run their shops.

He said politicians from successive governments had encouraged pavement hawkers over the years and so it was not a issue that could be settled over night by demolishing buildings.

The subject came up at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday where Minister Samaraweera said he had got many a bouquet for taking the unpopular step towards the removal of the illegal constructions only to be chided by Minister Fowzie that the bouquets must have come from the UNPers who were keen to see the government become unpopular.

However, Mr. Samaraweera said he had the backing of the Cabinet which had agreed to amend the existing laws by making them stronger.

A draft bill is expected to be presented in Parliament early next year.

Labour Minister Alavi Moulana said that an awareness program needed to be carried out before bulldozing away these encroachments and that a yardstick be adopted to decide which structures would be demolished.

"We were in the gallery before the elections and these are the same people who put us back in the balcony but now the places have been switched but we must not forget the needs of these people, " Mr.Moulana said.

He said there were about 40,000 illegal structures within the Colombo city. including the slums. He also said many people were occupying the street lines and the fire gaps and they needed to be removed systematically.

Parliamentarian Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra who had issued letters to some of the street hawkers saying they could operate their businesses from such places said that he was fully behind the move to remove illegal constructions.

He said many politicians give various letters during election time but they carried no legal authenticity and said the city needed to be cleaned up for the good for the majority of those who visit and live in the cities.

The Urban development Authority (UDA) which is carrying out the demolition process said everything was being done legally with the permission of the courts and asked members of the public to inform it of any unauthorized erections or land fillings.

Tempers rise as walls come tumbling down

The men and women whose shops were demolished by the Urban Development authorities last week were angry that they had not been given prior notice before their buildings were torn down with some even threatening self immolation if they were not given alternatives to run their shops.

Most of the shop owners in Slave Island who lost their livelihood as a result of the action said they had been there for over two years and no one had tried to stop them prior to last week for carrying out their businesses there.

The vendors along Jayantha Weerasekara Mawatha in Maligawatte had been there for the past six months and said they had got written permission from the National Housing Development Authority to build their shops there.

Janitha Perera from Maligawatte where 20 shops were demolished including her vegetable stall said they had spent one and a half to two lakhs to build the shops by pawning jewelry, mortgaging property and taking loans and everything had been lost within a few minutes.

"What are we going to do now. We all supported this government and within months of returning to power, they have betrayed us," she said.

Most vendors felt they were caught between the interests of different politicians in the PA government and doubted if the authorities were serious about the removal of all illegal constructions.

"Why are they adopting double standards. How is it only a few of us are targeted and not others. Is it because we are known to be aligned to certain PA politicians,?" they questioned.

The vendors were also angered by Minister Samaraweera's statement that he was not ready to play to the gallery.

"Before the elections we were out in the box seats now we have been reduced to the gallery just because we oppose what they are doing," said Douglas another of the affected vendors.

" If they want to beautify the city, they must start by removing the sandbags and barrel's in the city that have defaced the city and made it look like a fortress," he said.

They said they would like a meeting with Minister Samaraweera so that they could get some redress for their problem at least in the form of some compensation for the destroyed buildings.

Colombo's Mayor Omar Kamil said that all structures put up without the approval of the Municipal Council were illegal and could be removed.

He said structures coming up on pavements and roads were a hindrance to the public but where the street hawkers were concerned, their livelihoods were at stake and hence the matter needed to be looked at from a humane angle.

He said the CMC has started a programme to provide carts to the hawkers to sell their products without hampering pedestrians.

Hundreds of illegal constructions have sprung up all over the city of Colombo and its suburbs and also in other big cities over the years mainly as a result of patronizing by politicians.

Inside the glass house

Editorial/ Opinion Contents