He has given these instructions during a special meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat, today (1st August).

The President has summoned this meeting to review the progress and the current situation of the post disaster management activities implemented in the districts affected by the floods and landslides.

During this meeting special attention was drawn regarding the welfare of the people in the areas, affected by drought.    

The people in those areas have to face many difficulties with this prevailing dry weather conditions and the President said that it is the responsibility of all to provide relief measures to the affected people.   

The requisite funds have been allocated to the relevant institutions to provide drinking water and other water needs of those people and the President instructed the officials to continuously monitor the progress of those activities.

Furthermore, the President said that he has decided to provide dry rations to the affected people and said that he will submit this proposal to the Cabinet.   

President Sirisena pointed out the importance of handing over high-quality foods for those people and instructed to deploy an investigation team to scrutinize the process.

Meanwhile, it was discussed regarding the progress of identifying and releasing alternative lands to resettle the people who have lost their houses due to recent calamities. The President instructed the officials to complete the identification of these lands before the 15th of this month and if there are any issues in this regard, to inform him in writing by this Wednesday.

The President, furthermore instructed the officials to hand over those identified lands to the beneficiaries before the end of this month.