(UTV | COLOMBO) – The second phase of the distribution of Rs.5000 allowance for the Gampaha district will commence tomorrow (3) and the payments will be completed within a week, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said. The allowance of Rs. 5,000 will be provided for families who lost their livelihoods due to the imposition of the quarantine curfew in the Gampaha district, the second phase of the distribution will commence tomorrow (3).
Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has instructed the Divisional Secretaries to pay the allowance within one week once the funds are received.
4,64,254 families in the Gampaha district are receiving the allowance of Rs.5,000 under the second phase. The government will allocate Rs. 2,321,270,000 for this purpose. Out of this Rs. 416 million has already been provided by the Finance Ministry to the District Secretariat.
MinisterRanatunga said the remaining amount is planned to be provided in several stages before November 10.
The Rs. 5,000 allowance has already been paid to 80,000 families in three police areas, Minuwangoda, Divulapitiya and Veyangoda in the Gampaha District where the curfew was first imposed. The government had spent Rs. 400 million for this.
Gampaha District Secretary Sunil Jayalath said that instructions have been given to the Divisional Secretaries to pay the Rs. 5,000 allowance from Tuesday (3).
Divisional Secretaries have been instructed to coordinate the payment of this allowance through the Rural Committee including the Local Government representative, Grama Niladhari, Samurdhi Officer and the Development Officer.
As the first step of the second phase, the government has released Rs. 416 million to provide the allowance of Rs. 5,000, the District Secretary said. Accordingly, arrangements have been made to provide the relevant allowance to the families who have not yet received the allowance in Attanagalla, Mirigama and Divulapitiya Divisional Secretariats.
The District Secretary also added that under the first phase, the allowance had been paid to several people in these Divisional Secretariats. The number of families to be paid the relevant allowance in these Divisional Secretariats is 83257.
Thereafter 45,503 families in Mahara, 39,342 families in Gampaha, 32,132 in Dompe, 53,581 in Katana, 45,605 in Ja-Ela, 33849 in Kelaniya, 46008 in Biyagama, 46,519 in Wattala and 38,458 families in Negombo will be given this allowance.
The allocation was made following a special request made by the Gampaha District Leader Minister Prasanna Ranatunga to the President, the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Economic Revival Committee Basil Rajapaksa.
