New homes for 75 families in Meeriyabedda within 3 months

The Makanda factory shelters 92 families            

The fallen statue of Hindu deity Mahamuni at Meeriyabedda            

75 new houses being built at Poonagala            

Text and pix by P.D. De Silva 

“The 75 families that lost all that they possessed together with their houses and 39 loved ones to the earth slip that occurred at Meeriyabedda, Koslanda on the morning of 29 October 2014 will be given permanent houses at Poonagala within the next three months,” confirmed District Secretary Badulla Nimal Abeysiri.

For more than a year these people have spent sleepless nights in the tiny cramped cubicles at the welfare camp set up at the Mahakanda tea factory premises in uncertainty. Preparations to provide them with permanent housing on two previous occasions did not get beyond the foundation stone. But now they sleep well as they can see the 75 little cottages sprouting up by the side of the Poonagala-Koslanda road. The project finally got underway on 15 March last year when Minister of Estate Infrastructure Development Palani Dhigambaram laid the foundation stone with the blessings of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. The 360 members of these 75 families would have welcomed the Sinhala and Hindu New Year which dawned a few days ago in their new homes if the project was completed on schedule but it will take three months more. 

The 75 family units that were initially accommodated at the Mahakanda welfare centre has increased to 92 now with familied children sharing their parents living quarters while others have postponed their marriage till such time they are provided with permanent housing .

“I lost my parents and sister on that fateful day,” said Subramaniam Wimala in halting Sinhala. “I was saved because I was visiting my in-laws but was in contact with my mother over the phone till it went dead. Parts of my mother’s remains were excavated six days after but my father still remains buried there,” she added. Heavy rains triggered the massive earth slip which buried seven line rooms claiming 39 lives and rendering hundreds homeless at 7:15 a.m. on that fateful day.

“I lost everything I owned, loved and cherished including my daughter and son in law,” lamented 67 year old R. Ramiah pointing to a framed picture of the couple. “Nevertheless I am looking forward to spend the rest of my life in a home of my own,” he added with a sigh.

“The welfare centre is too crowded and noisy. It is impossible for my daughter to concentrate on her books. The teachers have complained that she is not concentrating enough on her studies since we came here. It is more than one and a half years since we lost our house and we are looking forward to living in a house of our own,” said Ramiah Indrani.

Mariah possibly in her sixties listened pensively to the others relating their tales of woe with a faraway look on her face probably thinking of her loving husband who remains buried under the ground since that fateful day. The only smiling faces I saw at the Mahakanda welfare centre were on the children who were at play oblivious to their parents’ worries and a little dog who befriended me!

Today, wild elephants roam upon the mounds of earth that buried the former homesteads of these unfortunate beings who lost all but live in hope of living in a house of their own again while the statue of Hindu deity Mahamuni which is said to have stood 18 feet tall will remain on its side among the boulders with eyes transfixed on the mountain side which buried many who paid homage to it.