Many post-disaster rebuilding projects have got underway, and the government is grappling with the uphill task of relocating the survivors of landslides and ensuring the safety of others living in unstable mountainous areas. Experts have warned that if another spell of torrential rains occurs soon, it may trigger a fresh wave of landslides. While efforts are being made to relocate the disaster victims to safe locations, hundreds of apartment dwellers in Colombo are expressing concern about their safety.

A seven-year-old child died on Thursday when a chunk of plaster of an apartment wall fell on him in Colombo 15. He was accompanying his grandmother when tragedy struck. Residents of the multi-storeyed apartment complex, Randiya Uyana, have told the media that they had informed the Urban Development Authority (UDA) several times that the plaster of some apartment walls had developed cracks, posing a danger to them, but their complaints and warnings had gone unheeded. There is a prima facie case of criminal negligence, we reckon.

Besides plaster fissures, what look like structural cracks on concrete beams are visible in some images of the apartment building shown on television. They must be carefully examined forthwith, and immediate action taken if they are symptomatic of any issues compromising the structural robustness of the building. Some residents are heard saying in videos in the digital realm that while they were living in slums and shanties in low-lying areas, they had to worry about only floods once in a way, but now they have to live in eternal fear of being crushed by falling fragments of their apartment building, which is already in a very poor condition due to lack of maintenance; elevators are out of order and sewage systems are malfunctioning. Drug addicts have reportedly damaged the elevators. There is a pressing need for the place to be policed regularly.

City planners have apparently not paid much attention to the social aspects of relocating low-income groups. Densification does not mean vertical relocation of slums and shanties in permanent buildings, so to speak. It is doubtful whether the UDA and other state institutions responsible for the densification projects devised ways and means of overcoming the challenges of transitioning from informal settlements to high-rise housing and the relocation-induced social strain. This may be one of the reasons why we are witnessing the so-called high-rise resettlement failure. Support of urban sociologists and other experts need to be enlisted to address these issues. Action must be taken to tackle the post-relocation integration problems and improve the living conditions of the occupants and ensure that they adapt to their new environment while engineering experts are tasked with ensuring that apartment complexes do not end up being towering deathtraps.

Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development Bimal Rathnayake said in Parliament on Thursday that the construction of the Randiya Uyana apartment complex had commenced in 2014. Thus, the building is relatively new, and this fact points to a possible lack of compliance with building standards on the part of the constructor, and other construction issues. Inspections must be conducted urgently to rule out structural load-bearing deficiencies and ensure the safety of hundreds of occupants. The constructor of the building must be questioned. Sri Lanka is no stranger to shoddy constructions, which are ubiquitous.

The UDA ought to learn from apartment complex disasters that have dominated the global headlines during the past several decades and take precautions. Prominent among them was the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers, Florida, where nearly 100 people died in 2021. Experts identified the deterioration of reinforced concrete and corrosion of critical support elements as some of the causative factors, according to media reports. Dozens of people perished when an apartment complex collapsed in Italy in 1999 due to structural failure caused by the use of substandard building materials and poor workmanship. There have been several other such disasters the world over.

One can only hope that proper construction practices and building codes were adhered to when multi-storeyed apartment complexes were constructed, and the UDA will inspect the Randiya Uyana apartment complex immediately without waiting until another disaster strikes. A thorough investigation is called for because it will not only help figure out what has gone wrong with the construction of the apartment building at issue but also hopefully lead to improvements in building standards and safety protocols aimed at preventing similar tragedies in the future in view of rapid vertical urban development.

Saturday 7th February, 2026

It is popularly said in this country that when one has power one has no brains, and when one has brains, one has no power—bale thiyanakota mole ne, mole thiyanakota bale ne. However, some present-day politicians have proved that they have neither power nor brains. Painful knocks they and their parties received from a disillusioned public in the 2024 elections do not seem to have had a sobering effect on them if their misplaced priorities are any indication.

Former Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena waxed eloquent in Parliament on Thursday, lamenting as he did the high prices of a popular brand of arrack, known as ‘gal’, so named because it was originally manufactured by a state distillery located in the Galoya valley. He fervently appealed to the government to consider slashing the ‘gal’ arrack prices ‘for the benefit of the ordinary people’ who consumed it. Deputy Minister of Economic Development Nishantha Jayaweera reportedly said the government was exploring the possibility of lowering excise duties on liquor.

MP Abeygunawardena is not alone in campaigning for making ‘gal’ arrack available at lower prices. His former ministerial colleague Chamara Sampath Dassanayake also keeps asking the government to reduce the ‘gal’ arrack prices. Their rotgut mission, as it were, may have gladdened the hearts of those who prioritise ‘warming the liver’ over everything else including the need to dull their family members’ pangs of hunger. The question is why these politicians are not equally vocal on the need to solve burning problems affecting the public, such as the escalating cost of living, and the prevalence of malnutrition and stunting among children. This country is not short of men who spend money on liquor at the expense of the nutritional needs of their family members, especially children.

It is doubtful whether the MPs calling for liquor price reductions have seen the findings of a Select Committee of Parliament which was appointed to look into child malnutrition issues in Sri Lanka. The committee report, issued last year, has said that according to the National Nutrition and Micronutrient Survey conducted in 2022, the prevalence of low birth weight in a nationally representative sample was 15.9%. The June 2023 Nutrition Month report identified an increase in underweight and stunting among infants and children up to two years of age compared to 2022, the committee report has said, noting that the most alarmingly high underweight rate of 24.6% was recorded in the Nuwara Eliya District, where one in every four children was identified as moderately or severely underweight. In June 2023, the proportion of children affected by poverty in Sri Lanka was 10%, and 1.2% of all children under the age of 5 were affected by severe acute malnutrition, the committee has said. Reports issued by non-governmental research organisations have revealed that about 43% of Sri Lankan children experience some nutritional problems, including stunting, underweight or wasting. Why don’t the members of both sides of the House address these issues which are bound to impact the entire nation adversely?

We have not heard the campaigners for cheap liquor addressing issues faced by women, who do not seek solace in alcohol despite working as hard as men and being equally fatigued and stressed. They toil in garment factories and on estates and in West Asia to keep their home economies and the national economy afloat. But the alcohol and tobacco consumption among them is negligible. Hats off to them!

Most of all, the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA), during a recent interaction with the Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee on Health, Mass Media and Women’s Empowerment, has revealed that approximately 22,000 deaths occur annually in Sri Lanka due to tobacco and alcohol consumption, according to a report published in this newspaper on 30 Jan. 2026. The NATA has disclosed that the country suffers an economic loss of between Rs. 225 billion and Rs. 240 billion a year due to the consumption of tobacco products and alcohol. The focus of all people’s representatives must be on how to reduce liquor and tobacco consumption to save precious lives and state funds.

When will our politicians stop playing to the gallery and grow up?

Friday 6th February, 2026

Some Opposition big guns went ballistic yesterday in Parliament, lashing out at the JVP-NPP government for refusing to provide SJB MP Rohana Bandara with security in view of threats to his life. They have been urging the government to ensure the protection of MP Bandara, but in vain. It looks as if the eminences grises of the JVP remote-controlled the national legislature.

The government MPs made some facetious remarks about MP Bandara’s demand for security. Their flippancy is deplorable. Gun violence is on the rise, and hardly a day passes without a fatal shooting in this country. Underworld gangs have amply demonstrated their ability to strike anywhere at will. The police swing into action only after crimes are committed.

The police first made a proper threat assessment and concluded that MP Bandara should be provided with security. The government, which had made light of his complaint, was left with egg on its face. It disregarded the police report and sought to obfuscate the issue. While it was drawing fire in Parliament for the inordinate delay in taking action to protect MP Bandara, the police issued a counter-report, reversing their earlier threat assessment, and, lo and behold, claimed that the threats to the MP emanated from a rival in his own party. Obviously, the government pressured the police to make an about-turn and help give a political twist to the issue. The police have earned notoriety for their absurd claims, which are legion, and trotting out lame excuses in defence of their political masters.

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday chided the government frontbenchers for flippancy and making a false claim that MP Bandara had received threats from someone in his own party. He said a Deputy Inspector General of Police in Anuradhapura and intelligence services had initially recommended that MP Bandara be given adequate security. But the government members continued to crack themselves up. Ruling party politicians behave in this manner when power goes to their heads.

The Opposition MPs are in a dilemma where their security is concerned. When they face threats and ask for protection, the Speaker says the government goes by threat assessments done by the police in deciding whether to provide them with security. The police do as the government says, and issue reports justifying its position that there are no threats to its political rivals. Thus, the Opposition MPs have no one to turn to when their lives are in danger. The government MPs are apparently deriving some perverse pleasure from MP Bandara’s predicament.

Let the government be warned that it is making a big mistake by refusing to provide MP Bandara with security. Sri Lanka is no stranger to political assassinations. The JVP itself has gunned down hundreds of its political rivals. The UNP, the SLFP, etc., too, have a history of political violence, which claimed many lives. Those who do not learn from history are said to be doomed to repeat it. One may recall that an assassin’s bullet that pierced DUNF leader and former Minister Lalith Athulathmudali’s heart in April 1993 became the undoing of a UNP government. That repressive regime disregarded the then Opposition’s demand that the UNP dissidents be provided with security as they were facing threats to their lives from the LTTE as well as pro-UNP goons.

Most of all, a fundamental democratic and legal norm underpinning modern parliamentary systems is that all members of Parliament are equal in rights and privileges and must be treated as such. It is unbecoming of a government to dismiss threats to an Opposition MP’s life, and make flippant remarks, which reflect poorly on it.