The Ministry of Public Administration and Management says that there are close to 400 senior officers including a number of ministers and parliamentarians on a waiting list to obtain officials residences in Colombo.

Secretary of the ministry, J.J. Rathnasiri said that there are only 107 residences under state ownership.  He added that due to this reason, there is a difficulty in providing official residencies to those on the waiting list.

The secretary also said that as a solution to this problem, proposals will be presented to construct a housing complex for these senior officials.

Meanwhile, News1st made inquiries from the secretary as to why opposition leader R. Sampanthan is yet to recieve an official residence.

J J Ratnasiri said that three official residencies were presented to R Sampanthan for consideration, however the opposition leader rejected all three residences.

He added that afterwards. the opposition whip was presented with a few private houses after calling for tenders, but this too was rejected by him.

State Minister of National Policiesand Economic Affairs,Niroshan Perera noted that there are two ineligible individuals who are occupying two official residences and that legal action has been taken against them

He went on to name the two individuals as Chandrasiri Sooriyarachchi and Premalal Jayasekera, against whom legal measures have been taken

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