News
Cost of electing one MP rises to Rs. 77 million – CMEV
Text and pic by Priyan De Silva
The National Coordinator of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) Manjula Gajanayake said, yesterday, that the cost of electing a single MP amounted to approximately Rs 77 million.
Gajanayake said that while the government spent Rs 85 billion on the election, the estimated campaign expenditure incurred by political parties and contestants was over Rs. 1.59 billion. “The cost incurred by the government per voter in 2004 was only Rs. 67 and it has escalated to Rs. 523 per voter today,” he added.
Gajanayake said that a parliamentary election was the biggest logistic operation in a democratic country and added that nearly 16 million eligible voters were expected to cast their votes at 12,885 polling centres today.
Gajanayake claimed that observations and reports by election monitors had helped playing a role to empower Election Commission to annul the votes at any polling centre if major violations took place there. He said that 10,000 election monitors had been assigned for today’s election.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution forwarded by the Minister Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation to appoint R. A. Chandana Saman Ranaweera Arachchi a special grade officer of Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) as the Commissioner
General of Lands.
Approval was granted at the cabinet meeting held on 05-08-2024 to resettle the unauthorized residents in the railway reserve from the Maligawatte Loco junction to Padukka railway station under the Colombo Suburban Railway Project.
Accordingly, resettlements in 694 housing units which were purchased from housing complexes owned by the Urban Development Authority have already been completed and further, 144 housing units are due
to be received from the Urban development Authority. In addition, a housing complex consisting of 120 housing units is being constructed on land in Kottawa, Malapalla area which is owned by the Railway Department for the resettlement of unauthorized residents in Maharagama, Homagama, Padukka area where there are no housing
schemes of the Urban Development Authority, and the constructions of that housing scheme is being completed at present.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Transport, Highways, Port, and Civil Aviation to transfer the land located in Kottawa, Marapalla, belonging to the Sri Lanka Railway Department, and the housing complex within the said land to the National Housing Development Authority as a free grant in terms of the provisions of Section 6(1) of the Government Land Ordinance and to implement the said program of providing the relevant deeds to the selected beneficiaries in such a way as not to burden them financially.
The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation to appoint Dr. Mrs. E. R. S. P. Edirimanne serving as a special grade officer in Sri Lanka Agriculture Service in the post of Additional Secretary (Agri Technology) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation as the Commissioner General of Agriculture,
R A Chandana Saman Ranaweera Arachchi appointed as Commissioner General of Lands
Resettlement of unauthorized residents in Kelaniveli Railway Reserves
Dr. Mrs. E. R. S. P. Edirimanne appointed Commissioner General of Agriculture
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