In addition to the public protests against the takeover of the West Coast by an authority under the Prime Minister, including a valuable ecological zone with international recognition, a fundamental rights petition has been filed in the courts.
Gampaha District Parliamentarian Kavinda Jayawardena and Meegama of the Samagi Jana Balawega have called for a ruling that the decision to illegally take over lands in the Muthurajawela Ecologically Sensitive Zone to the Urban Development Authority violates fundamental human rights enshrined in the Constitution through a gazette notification. K., a fisherman. The. N. Fernando files a petition in the Supreme Court.
In addition to this court action, a protest was held in Kandana this morning demanding the government to withdraw the gazette notification to seize private lands and sell them to foreign companies under the guise of development. It was called the Coast Guard Protection Organization.
A gazette notification issued by the President on October 07 states that lands in the Muthurajawela Ecologically Sensitive Zone have been taken over by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and that permission has been granted to develop them as “Ramsa” wetlands. , It should be done under the Forest Department, ”the petitioners point out.
The Fundamental Rights Petition states that once the Ramsar Wetland is designated, the public will be barred from entering it, which would be unfair to the 300,000 residents of the area and the 5,000 or so wetlands associated with fishing and farming.
The petitioners, therefore, request the Supreme Court to issue an order nullifying this gazette notification issued with the intention of designating it as an “Ecologically Sensitive Zone” and developing it as a “Ramsar” Wetland.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Minister of State Nalaka Godahewa, Secretary to the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, Director General of Wildlife Chandana Sooriyabandara, Divisional Secretaries of Wattala, Negombo, Ja-Ela, Attorney General Sanjaya Rajaratnam and 14 others have been named as respondents.
“It has been taken over by the UDA and it has already been sold and the money has been taken away,” MP Harin Fernando told a media briefing in Colombo yesterday [4]. (https://www.aithiya.lk/11662/harin-fernando-muthurajawela-buffer-zone/) The Member of Parliament further pointed out that in this project of the government, Nilsirigama including Muthurajawela wetland on the screen of “West coast from Peliyagoda to Negombo Kochchikade” People in many villages, including Janodaya Gama, are losing their homes and lands.
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