The Government Has Privatised 20 Acres Of Prime Land Without A Tender
Harsha de Silva
UNP National List MP Harsha de Silva last week charged that the government has sold prime land of 20 acres in the heart of Colombo to two international buyers without following tender procedures.
The MP alleges that the UPFA has privatised the best 20 acres of Sri Lanka even without calling for a tender.
In a statement issued Friday, Harsha de Silva said:
The Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene revealed in Parliament last evening (22 June 2011) that 20 acres of land opposite the Galle Face Green has been privatised. He accepted that 10 acres were sold outright to Shangri La Asia Limited and 10 more acres to China Aviation Technology Import Export Corporation (CATIC). This contradicts numerous previous statements that this land was given out on long lease as privatisation was not the policy of the Mahinda Chinthana.
With respect to the price per perch the Deputy Minister failed to submit the valuation report but said the Government obtained three times the valuation. The UNP completely rejects this blatant attempt at misleading the public. Given the sale price of Rs 8.5 million a perch to Shangri La, it is absolutely not possible that the market price of a perch at Galle Face could only be Rs 2.8 million. We demand that the Government withdraw this false statement as it would otherwise point the finger at the Chief Valuer for having undervalued crown land; a serious allegation. We also demand that the valuation report be made public immediately. It has now been found out that this Government which made such a song and dance at the removal of 100 percent tax on sale of land to foreigners has sold the best 20 acres of this country without charging a single cent of tax.
Furthermore it has now been revealed that no tenders were called prior to sale of either of the 10 acre plots purportedly to globally renowned leisure companies. While we acknowledge Shangri La qualifies as one the top global players in the industry we reject outright that CATIC is even a mediocre player in the global leisure business. In fact, CATIC is a fighter aircraft and missile manufacturer for the most part. We find serious issue with the sale of the second 10 acres to CATIC without a tender procedure purportedly on the grounds that it is a top global leisure company.
The Deputy Minister also failed to reveal the date or dates of sale of the 20 acres of land. This is crucial because Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa stated in Parliament on March 9, 2011 that land will only be sold after the receipt of full payment. So when was the land sold? The Deputy Minister was unable to state when each of the 10 acre plots was sold.
Furthermore the UNP is bewildered by the attempt by the Deputy Minister to obfuscate the treatment of the sale proceeds by stating that the privatisation revenue has been included in the treasury general deposit account. We demand full transparency of all activity related to this transaction including dates of sale, why tenders were not called for at least the 10 acres that was given to CATIC, why taxes were waived for both entities and how the sale proceeds were treated.
Can’t this issue be taken to the SC on Fundamental Rights provision? This is land belonging to all Sri lankans and naturally every individual is interested in the sale price and whether the sale occurred following accepted procedures.
Ram
Dear Ram,
You are living in a dream world.
Have you not heard of Mr. Ten Percent and others like him?
This Supreme Court is entirely controlled by the President.
It will never ‘decide’ against the government.
Harsha de Silva
OH ! YOU TALK TOO MUCH TO BE POPULAR , DON’T TRY TO PULL BACK THIS COUNTRY FROM DEVELOPMENT WORK TO YOUR POWER GREEDY INTENTIONS (UNP)
COME TO POWER WITH A ELECTION THAN SAYING ALL THIS NONSENSE.
Rohan,
It is beyond your standard to know the value of our country’s prime land been sold to outsiders. You need to grow up to understand the repercussions that will follow in time. Nobody objects to development, provided it is done with the correct way & right intentions. Only crooks with a hidden agenda will scoop to this level to sell the country’s prime assts obviously using the under table operative method, to which you are scapegoat too, leave alone the entire country.
SELL WHOLE SRI LANKA TO ACHIEVE THE GREATEST DEVELOPMENT THINKABLE. AFTER THAT HAY CAN BE IMPORTED CHEAPLY SINCE THERE IS NO GREAT DEMAND FOR IT IN THE WORLD MARKET FROM ANY OTHER NATION ON THE PLANET EARTH SINCE THEY HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT GREAT WAYS OF DEVELOPING NATIONS!
rohan forget harsha . Use your brain. 2.8 for this prime land this is a crime and top of that NO TAXES this amounts to war crimes .
Its because of fools like you that corruption is rampant in this country
Its us the citizens of this country who are paying the price for such blatant corruption
there are people willing to pay more than 9 million and more per perch for this land
your just a cheap crook like the rest of the crooks
Thank god that I never make it as president of this country
for I will bring back the death penalty for corruption
HARSHA IS NOT POWER HUNGRY.HE IS A QUALIFIED ECONOMIST AND HE WAS BROUGHT INTO POLITICS. PEOPLE LIKE HARSHA ARE NEEDED IN PARLIAMENT OTHERWISE IT IS MORE LIKE A CIRCUS WITH THE LIKE OF
MERVYNS,WEERAWANSA,DUMINDA AND THILANGA!!!!!!!!!!!
Rohan,
ever heard of media freedom n freedom of information?
maybe u r not interested, but the rest of the sri lankans are n we want to find out wat really happened.
Dear Mr.Rohan,
Ur comments are like kids. how can opposition can come to power even the election commissioner is controlled by the MR Dynasty?
this country will never develop unless mass village patriot ppl open their eyes & see what’s going on?.
Dynasty is taking maximum out of the foolish masses whom just beleive whatever the govt. does.
We welcome ppl like Dr.Harhsa, to point out the malpractices done by the dynasty. bravo UNP.
Dr. harsha is the only mans who speaks. RW is sleeping for anither defeat.
paste posters round the country for this barbaric act , highway robber in broad day light by the government , keep meetings at every nook and corner , explain to the people , this should be done for every bad things the govt does after giving assurance to the masses of their transparency , do not let this rogues sleep in peace , it is our hard earned money we pay to upkeep them , put up banners in every part of sri lanka , need to do this to expose of ever act of these rogues. then people will know what is happening , no use exposing in news papers only .
Harsha should know that this deal not only about land. Its reputed company and they going to invest many more develop a state of the art hotel which we badly need. I wish he could take that also into consideration.
Kuku looks like you are cuckoo in the head
we need state of the art hotels
but we need the money as well
we have so many people without homes
If this land was sold at the real value
this monety can be used for building homes for the millions of homeless
power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely
The people of this country are paying a very high price
for crooked development by crooked politicians
cheered on by their crooked supporters
It is a well known fact that Chinese are the number one in the world for taking and offering bribes. !
Chinese to build a luxury port city off Galle Face.The land is to be sold to China outright.!
It is better to sell the whole island to China.(The way the things are moving that will happen shortly )
The miracle of Asia !
Hasn’t that been happening in down south with or without government knowledge last thirty years in down south either directly or through proxies in down-south. What makes this different from that?
Yes , agreed we needs develop our mother land but we have to study why these Chinese are so interested in investing in Sri lanak …we have to be more and more careful otherwise will be too late,world is not China we should not depend on them ..there are not quality people still i prefer Englishman still most of them are gentlemens
i think ROHAN is a govt. stooge , rulers suckers , that is what we can say , if a person with clean hands speak and ROHAN does not know , he is the same culprit who enjoys at the expense of our tax money.
ROHAN might be the son of the PA of The Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene. good job ROHAN, ur doing the right thing.
Hi Rohan
I think you are one of those patriots who think selling our lands cheaply and robbing that money is a signature of patriotism.
One day, when your brain develops to a normal level, you would realise how much damaged these fire sales have done to our country.
No country on the face of earth, no matter how poor it is, fire sales its PRIME lands to foreigners !
Opposition has to be equally powerful & strong to stear the Country to the correct direction if going in a wrong way. But the situation of the opposition is too pathatic and hopeless.
We have NO right to talk about the dealings of Big People. Show me the man I will show you the rule.
THESE UNP FELLOWS DON’T REMEMBER HOW THEY LOST THE LAST ELECTION IN 2004. THEY WERE JUST ABOUT TO SELL THE WHOLE COUNTRY UNDER A PLAN CALLED “REGAINING SRI LANKA”.
CHANDRIKA DESOLVED THE PARLIAMENT AND CALLED FOR ANOTHER GENERAL ELECTION WHEN UNP GOVERNMENT WAS ABOUT TO SELL THE NATIONAL LOTTERY BOARD.
TO SELL THE NATIONAL LOTTERY BOARD?????? IT IT A LOSING BUSINESS??? WHAT WERE UPTO THEN???
THESE RABID FOOLS MUST BE MAD BUT NOT US…..