Moragoda gets prime land for peanuts

The prime land

The Milinda Moragoda Institute has been allocated 20 perches of prime land in Colombo 05 at a ridiculously low rate of Rs. 6,250 a month by the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) in 2003 – and the then mayor is refusing to comment on in while those who opposed it then are supporting it now that political colours have changed.

The land opposite Isipathana College at Park Road was allocated in August 2003 when Mr. Moragoda was Minister of Economic Reforms, Science and Technology in the UNF Government. The CMC made the decision after the institute requested this land on a long term lease to construct its office.

In the draft resolution submitted to the CMC’s standing committee on finance, it was stated that the rent for this land was fixed at a low rate because the institute was supposed to be a charitable organisation.

Councillor Milton Liyanage, who was the SLFP opposition leader in 2003, opposed the deal at that stage, alleging that the then mayor, Prasanna Gunawardena, was under political pressure to push it through.

But Mr. Liyanage now says he believes the deal was okay because many such blocks of land had been allocated to charitable institutions, while the then Mayor Gunawardena says he is now out of public life and does not wish to comment on it.

According to the deal, the lease agreement will be reviewed every five years and the rent is paid annually. One of the institute’s trustees, Vijitha Fernando, said the land had been leased to them for 30 years and they were building the office premises.

This disclosure of the lease of valuable public property at the lowest possible rate to a VIP comes at a time when the present CMC faces dissolution on charges of corruption, mismanagement and indulging in deals which resulted in huge losses of public funds.