Indian housing assistance for 53 families

India's Minister of Culture, Housing and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja visited Mannar recently to hand over 53 houses, constructed under the pilot phase of the Indian Housing Project, to the beneficiaries at Ganeshapuram near Velankulam, Manthai West.

India’s Minister of Culture, Housing and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja opens the project

The handing over of houses to the beneficiaries marked the culmination of the process of gifting the houses under the pilot phase of the project for the construction of 1,000 houses which was completed in July.

In a brief ceremony, the Minister symbolically handed over the certificate of ownership to the beneficiaries.

The Minister said the pilot phase of the project was part of an overall commitment of 50,000 houses announced by the Prime Minister of India during the State Visit of the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa in June 2010 and given the scale and reach, the housing project is the flagship project of India's development assistance to Sri Lanka and also one of the largest grant assistance projects undertaken by the Government of India in any part of the world.

The Minister said the housing project also complemented the numerous initiatives India has already taken to support the immediate humanitarian needs and requirements of displaced people and is part of the long-term reconstruction and development programs for the displaced in Sri Lanka.

The Minister thanked the Government of Sri Lanka for its support to the project, noting that the next phase of the project for 43,000 housing units under the owner-driven model in the Northern and Eastern Provinces had been launched recently with the signing of agreements awarding work to four implementing agencies.

Meanwhile Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa thanked Minister Selja for leading the delegation that brought the Sacred Kapilavastu Relics of the Buddha from India.