Making a ministerial statement, the Minister Amaraweera said that there were around 1,000 persons in temporary welfare camps and foreign nations, organizations as well as local institutions had offered their assistance to provide relief for the affected people.

“There are lots of groups which may try to make use of this calamity. They may organize campaigns to collect monies and material saying that they would be for the use of affected people, but none of us know where these monies and materials would end up. We request the people not to fall fray for such fraudsters,” the Minister said.

“We do not have a need for international assistance. If anyone wants to provide scholarships or assistance to children affected, then those assistances should channel through government agencies and transparency should be maintained.”

The Minister expressed his displeasure over some estate companies shirking their duties by shifting the burden on government agencies. “It is so unfortunate that the estate company which owns the land and people who had been hit by disaster trying to evade their responsibilities. That company had been informed of the impending disaster and it is questionable as to why they failed to take action to evict people from landslide prone areas in time. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the IGP to investigate this,” Minister Amaraweera said.

He said that there was no document or register of all the residents lived at the line-houses in Meeriyabedda, Koslanda. “There had been one set of document containing the list of names of people lived there with a midwife in her office. But both midwife and her office buried in the landslide.”

Minister Amaraweera said that there were many other estates where some areas had been identified as landslide prone regions. “We would soon bring about new laws before this House holding the owners of such estates responsible to provide their employees safer houses.” (Special Reporter/HC)