The land acquired at the cost of 14 million rupees for the construction of the Ratnapura District Office of the Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute has not been used so far – Chair of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development

It was revealed at the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development that the land acquired at the cost of 14 million rupees under a thirty-year lease in 2016 for the construction of the Ratnapura District Office of the Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute has not been used at all.

Accordingly, it was emphasized in the Sectoral Oversight Committee that spending the money of the people of the country for various needs and not taking advantage of it is a big loss.

This was discussed when the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development met under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament Hon. Ajith Mannapperuma recently. Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute was summoned for this Sectoral Oversight Committee meeting.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the company pays 1 million rupees for the Kaduwela main office building and Rs.3.5 lakhs for the Ratnapura office building as monthly rent. The committee also focused on turning the courses conducted by Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute into profitable international level courses.

There was also a lengthy discussion on studying the international gem market and using those trends to improve the local industry including measures to be taken to improve the gem and jewelery industry in Sri Lanka.

The National Water Supply and Drainage Board was called before this Committee for the second session. During this meeting attention was focused on filling existing vacancies that require technical skills to run the work efficiently. The committee emphasized that urgent action should be taken regarding those vacancies.

The chairman of National Water Supply and Drainage Board emphasized that if the consumers clean and maintain their water collection tanks at least once in 03 months, the tap water supplied by their institution will be of high quality even for direct consumption. The chair further pointed out that even though it costs about 12 cents to provide a liter of tap water, the public who do not have any understanding in this regard spend about 150 rupees and use bottled drinking water.