A circular issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Lands violates the President’s ‘vistas of prosperity’.
The circular issued to all District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries for ‘Measuring and allocating government lands’ states that action should be taken to identify and survey land surveys for various purposes such as surveying, development and village expansion and protection for future development activities.
The Land and Agriculture Reforms Movement (PLRM) said in a statement that the circular violated not only President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s manifesto but also the Constitution and the Wildlife and Forest Conservation Ordinance.
During the last presidential election, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa stated in Chapter VIII -‘Sustainable Environmental Policy’ of ‘vistas of prosperity’, ‘We are working to increase the national forest cover to 30%, conserve natural ecosystems and ecosystems that have been damaged. The government will act as a custodian to protect the land rights of human beings as well as other animals.
According to Article 6 of the Constitution, the government must protect, safeguard and improve the environment for the benefit of the people. Land and Agriculture Reforms Movement’s statement further stated that the deforestation was aimed at destroying the welfare of the people. These forests are said to be the main habitat for elephants that make connections between protected areas.
“The circular issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Lands violates the Constitution, the Wildlife and Forest Conservation Ordinance, destroys the remaining 12 percent of the country’s forests and contributes to the development of elephant-human conflict,” said the Land and Agriculture Reforms Movement.
The movement, which proposes the abolition of the Circular and the formulation of a National Land Policy as a solution, emphasizes the importance of the immediate establishment of the National Land Commission, which has been delayed for thirty-four years by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which must be established on a non-racial and technical basis.
