{"id":49755,"date":"2016-11-20T15:28:59","date_gmt":"2016-11-20T19:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=49755"},"modified":"2016-11-20T15:28:59","modified_gmt":"2016-11-20T19:28:59","slug":"cabinet-minister-dm-swaminathan-refutes-allegations-made-by-tna-against-proposal-to-construct-65000-pre-fabricated-houses-in-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=49755","title":{"rendered":"Cabinet Minister DM Swaminathan Refutes Allegations Made by TNA Against Proposal to Construct 65,000 Pre-fabricated Houses in North"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Hafsa Sabry<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fresh controversy has arisen on the 65,000 housing project in Jaffna with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran telling Parliament that there was a proposal to build each house for Rs. 1 million but the Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs D. M. Swaminathan had picked a contractor to build each house for five times more.<\/p>\n

Sumanthiran further stated that earlier, the Indian government had built houses for just Rs. 700,000 in the North and the Resettlement Ministry can look for proposals to work with the Indian government to build houses at a lower cost instead choosing the pre-fabricated houses in the North.<\/p>\n

He also said the people in the area dislike the modern houses and instead they want brick houses which can be strong and stable for 3-4 generations.<\/p>\n

Sumanthiran further stated that they, with a group of experts on the field, have made alternative proposals for housing development in the war affected areas. According to the alternative proposal Sumanthiran claimed the local banks are ready to fund the project whereas the housing project under construction was funded by foreign banks.<\/p>\n


\nResponding to the allegations made by Sumanthiran, Minister Swaminathan said that the government and the Ministry is giving Rs. 900,000 for each family to construct houses on their own but they are unable to complete the construction for that money.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There is a lack of sand as the prices of sand have increased by 100% during the last two months from what it was. There is a huge shortage of wood, sand and labour. He said that when money is given to build on their own, then they have to get their labour, sand and everything which cost another additional 2-300, 000 LKR and they will be in complete debt and confusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the trend of the world is to construct pre-fabricated houses and at least 150,000 houses should be built in the war affected areas but only 22,000 houses will be built urgently in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi as they were the most affected areas and people suffer from not having a shelter to stay. Among those who suffer are the older people and war widows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Minister said that certain people in Parliament are against the Ministry\u2019s move to build prefabricated houses as they are not fully aware of what exactly it is.<\/p>\n

Responding to the allegations made by Sumanthiran in Parliament claiming that the houses are not stable without a base, Minister Swaminathan said the houses have a concrete base and the top engineers of the world have given a 30-year warranty for the houses unlike what was said Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a 4 ton house so how can a person shake and move it by leaning against it unless he is a superman,\u201d Minister said.<\/p>\n

The Minister further stated that the alternate proposals they have tabled at the parliament has no proper directions or recommendations for a professional project proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI closely went through the alternate proposal they have submitted, but found nothing helpful as they do not recommend a way for financial arrangements. Meanwhile, the local banks refused to fund the project. The NDB in their letter has just expressed their interest \u2018a letter of intent\u2019 but not a confirmation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said that the people in the North are in dire need of a shelter to stay in and if the government follows the new project proposal, it will take a long time to reach a conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter going through all the procedures, then 2017 will be spent doing nothing for the people who are in need. Most importantly, the local banks refused to fund the projects. The alternate proposal states that there is a consortium of banks but have not mentioned what the banks are. In addition the 2017 budget is already been set with their targets and allocated the funds required whereas the alternative proposal suggest to get government funding which is not at all possible. We could consider the alternate proposal at least if they have come up with proper and useful ideas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got the world\u2019s best technicians and the constructors. This is not something of a mushroom company. This is one of the best companies in the world. And I would like to question the people who are coming with new proposals and plans why they did not come when the tender procedure was on. They come here when everything is over and the construction work had already been started,\u201d the Minister added.<\/p>\n

Over 97,000 people from the North have given letters to the Ministry in writing stating that they want these prefabricated houses as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not really know what their argument is and why they want the project to be put down. There should be a political gain I suppose,\u201d added the minister. \u201cThey make baseless allegations. The report that they submitted from the Moratuwa University is not even approved by the vice chancellor of the university. How can that be authenticated then, whereas we have got a report from the University of Peradeniya that is approved by the vice chancellor with all the professors of engineering and I have tabled that at the parliament. They have agreed to the quality of the houses and directed us to proceed. The Moratuwa University report was however counteracted word-to-word by the report of University of Peradeniya, which had been tabled at the parliament as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are allegations against the Ministry that the tender procedures were violated but the Minister claims that they have followed the procedures according to the system and it was not just the Minster\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n

The foreign banks have even given a grace time period of three years where the government of Sri Lanka has to pay back only the interest and the rest have to be paid in 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will submit all the reports and the documents on what exactly we have done which is useful for the time being and present situation in the parliament in due course,\u201d the Minister added. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, a single unit of prefabricated house including kitchen with pantry cupboard, gas cooker, gas cylinder, sink, water tab, cooking utensils; dining room with table and four chairs; living room with three pieces of sofa sets; coffee table, TV stand, TV, free standing fan; master bed room one double bed, two bedside tables, second bedroom with two singe beds, two single mattresses, one writing table and a chair, laptop computer with Wi-Fi facility, solar panels with light fittings with electrical connections, tube well pump 500L water tank and ceramic tile floors and toilet facilities cost 2.18 million without taxes. <\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Sunday Leader<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Hafsa Sabry A fresh controversy has arisen on the 65,000 housing project in Jaffna with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran telling Parliament that there was a proposal to build each house for Rs. 1 million but the Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs D. M. Swaminathan had …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Cabinet Minister DM Swaminathan Refutes Allegations Made by TNA Against Proposal to Construct 65,000 Pre-fabricated Houses in North’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49756,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49755\/revisions\/49756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}