Non-compliance with building regulations must be dealt with strictly

RICE mill magnate Dudley Sirisena who recently addressed the Annual General Meeting of the Business Traders Association Hingurakgoda used the event to reply to recent claims by Agriculture Minister K.D. Lal Kantha that Sirisena’s hotel was built on a reservation area of the Parakarama Samudraya in Polonnaruwa and that the outer wall of the hotel should be demolished.

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Sirisena’s answer to his critics was to admit that his hotel has in fact encroached on the reservation area while announcing plans to demolish the entire building and put a new hotel in the same place.

It is common knowledge that Sirisena is not the exception but the rule where encroachments in Sri Lanka is concerned. While hoteliers and other big businesses often flaunt rules offering inducements to authorities concerned to have their plans approved, members of the public too are often guilty of encroaching on street lines and road reservations, embankments, etc.