Minister of Housing and Common Amenities, Mrs.Ferial Ashraff has handed over  the ownership of houses to the Vedda community (Ancestor) which are built in Henanigala of Dehiattakandiya DS Division in Ampara district recently (20^th June 2009)

Several decades ago these inhabitants had started living in caves in jungle areas and subsequently have moved in to make temporary shelters in rural areas.  They had been agitating from the state to provide them with housing and infrastructure facilities since from long time to maintain a life style par with the modern society.  As a result under the guidance of His Excellency the President, Minister of Housing & Common Amenities, Mrs. Ferial Ashraff has implemented the present housing programme for Vedda community.  This programme had been implemented by the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) and Rs. 50,000/- had been granted to each family to build their permanent houses.  These houses were built by themselves utilizing the government grant and with the guidance of NHDA.

At this function Minister Mrs. Ferial Ashraff said “The NHDA has given Rs. 50,000/- for each family and these houses are valued at least Rs. 2 – 3 hundred thousand and are built environment friendly utilizing their hard earned savings and their labour.  The message given by this housing development programme is that if a small grant and technical guidance were given to prospective house builders, the house could be built utilizing their savings and their labour.”

The leader of the Vadda community of Hennanigala, Uruwarige Kalubanda expressing his views said “Today is a very important day for descendents of our community of Hennanigala.  We have shifted to this area on the request of former Minister of Mahaweli Development, late Mr. Gamini Dissanayake.   However the past leaders of our society were not interested in building permanent houses.  They prefer to live as the way their ancestors lived.  However the needs of the present community are changing with the needs of the modern society.  The youth of our new generation have mixed with the modern society.  Accordingly need for a permanent house has arisen instead of caves and make shift houses in which we are living today. 

Even though we pointed out this necessity to the then political leadership it was not materialized.  This idea was brought to the notice of His Excellency the President and Minister of Housing & Common Amenities, Mrs. Ferial Ashraff and the programme was speedily implemented.  The officers of the NHDA came to our area has given technical and financial assistance too.   We made bricks from earth and found timber from forest and build our houses.  We built our houses ourselves.  But still there are shortcomings.  However we have got the ownership of a permanent house instead of the temporary shelters which were lived earlier.  This can be introduced as a big change in our lives.  We thank His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse, the President and Minister of Housing & Common Amenities, Mrs. Ferial Ashraff for this programme.

Mr. Sunil Kannangara, Government Agent of Ampara, Mr. S.M.M. Yasin, Chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank, Mr. L.S. Palansuriya, General Manager of NHDA, Mr. J.N. Jayachandran, District Manager Ampara of NHDA and Mr. T.S. Kalansooriya, Manager Zonal Office Dehiattakandiya of NHDA, Mr. A.M.P.D. Wijeratne, Chairman Pradeshiya Sabha of Dehiattakandiya, Mr. M.D.M. Hemantha Kumara, Divisional Secretary of Dehiattakandiya also participated in this event.

                                                  25^th June 2009.