Jaishankar hands over more houses to Sri Lanka as both countries ink community development agreement

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The bilateral agreement related to raising the limit of the High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP) implemented in Sri Lanka with the support of the Government of India was signed during the meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo on Friday (20).

The Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Mahinda Siriwardena, signed the agreement on behalf of Sri Lanka and the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay signed on behalf of India.

This agreement guides many community development projects in Sri Lanka with the support of the Government of India.

This agreement related to community development projects in Sri Lanka was signed in May 2005. Its project limit was Rs. 300 million, which will now be doubled to Rs. 600 million by the agreement signed today.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka in 2017, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of an Academy for Kandyan dancing as a gift given to Sri Lanka by the Indian Government and its people. The Indian Foreign Minister virtually declared open the academy, which was built near the historical Dalada Maligawa in Kandy.

The handing over of 300 completed houses in Galle, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya – (100 houses each) under the housing project implemented in Sri Lanka with the support of the Indian Government, was also done virtually by the President and the Indian External Affairs Minister.

In this project of 60,000 houses, 50,000 houses have been completed. The third phase of the project of 400 houses for the people of the upcountry estate sector is currently underway and over 3,300 houses built under it have already been completed and are ready to be handed over to the beneficiaries.

The handing over of houses built in Anuradhapura and Badulla districts under the “Model Village Housing Program” implemented with the support of the Government of India for low-income families in Sri Lanka, were also symbolically handed over to the beneficiaries.