Mass-Scale Land Grabbing by Politicians?

Information received revealed that 05 acres of the lands in the Kolonnawa and Sapugaskanda owned by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, over 200 acres of reserve area in Kandy district, around 1000 acres out of 13,000 acres owned by the Railways department, 600 acres of the Wilpattu reserve as well as 20 acres in the boundary areas of the Yala national park and the Sinharaja reserve have been grabbed by politicians.Sources say that this land grabbing has taken place to build hotels, houses of politicians as well as to provide building/office spaces for close affiliates of politicians.

Speaking on this regard, Mr. S.P. Vithanage, General Secretary of the All Ceylon Railway Employees Association says that there are no proper records of land owned by the Railways department.is reported that even large hotels have been erected on lands of the Kelani Valleyl railroad.

Pathetic situation is that the heads of these government institutions being completely ignorant of the lands owned by their respective government institutions.