Plan to provide houses for 50,000 security personnel

The Defence Ministry together with the Central Bank will provide housing for 50,000 security forces personnel under the new ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ housing fund through public donations and foreign contributions. The five year project aims at building 10,000 houses per year and hopes to raise Rs. 15 billion for the building of all 50,000 homes.

All armed personnel in the Army, Navy, Air Force, STF or Police with two or more years of service will be eligible to receive housing through the project while the Defence Ministry will provide the land free of charge and public contributions would be utilized to pay the bank interest on all housing loans taken by the recipients.

At a media briefing on Thursday, Defence Ministry Additional Secretary Willie Gamage said almost Rs. 200 million has already been collected for the project through the corporate sector. Mr. Gamage also said the Government is taking measures through a gazette to make all donations for the ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ fund income tax free.

Account number 7040000 has been set up at the Bank of Ceylon (BoC) Corporate Branch to receive funds while the public can contribute cash and cheque donations to the ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ housing fund through any BoC branch in the island.

Donors can also send in their contribution via Dialog SMS by sending ‘API’ to 8877 to send a Rs.100 donation which would be then added to the donors monthly bill. If a donor wishes to contribute more than Rs.100 he must send the same SMS the appropriate number of times while the normal SMS charges will be waived. A Board of Trustees has also been set up to manage the funds received for the project.