R.D. Dayaratne lives in the Haliela area in the Badulla District. He is an innocent helpless villager who lives on a daily wage. A disabled person. He asks for permission to keep a road to his house and a bunch of other houses, from the relevant Divisional Secretariat, in fact he is asking for a planned route. He is not asking for a lost road. He has difficulty walking, how much if he has to drive home? The village plan has a road from there, and that’s what he’s asking for. He has been writing letters since 2015. According to him, he has spent around Rs. 48,000 on this letter alone. Compared to Mr. Dayaratne’s daily wage, it is a huge amount. He has a bundle of letters written to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Administration, the Ministry of Lands, the former Minister of Lands, the former Minister of Administration, the President, the Prime Minister and all these institutions. Top institutions have also asked for this road. A written letter has also been issued to the Grama Niladhari.
This permission can be granted overnight. But for five years he was a rascal for this. Everyone asked Mr. Dayaratne that if there was a plan he could take the road. Mr. Dayaratne alleges that despite receiving orders from the District Secretary, the former Divisional Secretary of Haliela did not do this work. The Divisional Secretary has written two letters to the District Secretary and the Land Commissioner. That this road was given. But that work has not been accomplished. Proving that it is a lie is due to applying under the Freedom of Information Act and obtaining relevant information. Mr. Dayaratne painfully questions why he was misled in this manner.
A family living below Mr. Dayaratne’s house is having a lot of trouble trying to get to this road because a small portion of their tea plantation is submerged in the road. It is said that because of this the Divisional Secretary succumbed to the rumors of these people. But Mr. Dayaratne is asking for a path in the plan. He keeps his illness and walks many times with the money in hand. for this. Mr. Dayaratne says that the Divisional Secretary has avoided this task despite being asked to provide the road by the Government Agent’s documents, as if the road was going out of his own pocket. She has refused to give this road on the basis that “there are already two roads and no other road can be given. But he questions why, if there are roads, he is so worried and asks for another road.
When the Divisional Secretary says such things without giving way, he requests that information be provided under the Freedom of Information Act, courtesy of the Uva Shakthi Foundation. What does the relevant public official say? “There is no such law. You can not give that information as you think.” She even tries to reject those demands. He is asking for this road not only for himself, but for all, including the eight families who currently live nearby and the people who work on the tea estates. Somehow after a long struggle the road is cut. We went to the house where this man lives. He now lives as happily as a country gets a kingdom. His next goal is to concrete this road. Because of his courage, he will not fail. He says he was able to take this path because of the Uva Shakthi Foundation, the Right to Life Human Rights Institute and the Freedom of Information Act.