Beneficiaries include those given State lands under licence system :
Process to be completed in a few years:
Two million families will benefit:
Steps are being taken by the Government to grant full ownership of State lands to 10,000 people who received lands under a licence system, in January next year.
This is according to a proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the 2024 Budget. The Waste Lands Ordinance was passed in 1897. The British government acquired thousands of acres of rural land across the country under that Ordinance. Afterwards, in 1935, under the Land Development Ordinance, those land slots were distributed among farmers under the licence system. But although around 100 years have passed, the ownership of these lands has not been handed back to the farmers and other people who owned them.
The President in the 2024 Budget said the Government will be handing over the lands to farmers who lost the ownership of their traditional lands during the British colonial era.
The task which will start in January is to be completed within another few years and two million families will get the ownership of land and farmland. The Cabinet of Ministers approved this programme on December 11.
Ownership deeds will be issued next January for those who have already applied.
For this process, ‘Urumaya Units’ will be established in all regional secretariat offices, provincial land commissioner offices, inter-provincial land commissioner offices and inter-provincial assistant land commissioner offices in the country.
The Land Commissioner General has issued a circular to the government agencies to inform them about this process.
Shiromi Abeyasinghe