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Battered by tsunami and then bureaucracy
A retired security officer’s battle to save his house caught between the 100-metre buffer zone rule and a red notice from a state bank. Hiranthi Fernando reports.

Battered by the tsunami which destroyed his home last December, A.A. Alwis of EgodaUyana, Moratuwa, is desperate. What remains of his house is within the so-called 100 metre buffer zone. He cannot repair his house or live in it, but he has now received a red notice from the State Mortgage Bank to pay up arrears on his loan, from January to September 2005, amounting to around Rs.11,400.

The deadline to settle the arrears was September 27. Failure to pay up would lead to the property being sold, he was informed. Casting his mind back to that fearful day in December, Alwis recalled that they were at home when the tsunami struck. They fled, leaving everything and managed to fight their way to safety, suffering some injuries in the process. Alwis and his family sought refuge at his wife’s sister’s house in Koralawella.

Returning to their home after three days, they found it in a bad state. The water mark on the walls inside was eight feet high. All their belongings, including cooker, TV and refrigerator, were gone. All they could salvage were a few small items, among them his savings book. The rest of his documents, including his birth certificate were lost.

“I used all my savings and the EPF and ETF monies I received on retirement to build this house,” lamented Alwis who had worked for four years in a hotel in Dubai.

On his return to Sri Lanka, he joined a five-star hotel as a security officer and worked until retirement in 1999. “I ran short of money only for the roof and took a loan of Rs. 75,000 from the State Mortgage and Investment Bank to complete the roof.”

His son who works as receptionist and his family also lived with them and Alwis had two or three boarders to enable him to pay his loan. “I did not want to burden my son with this debt as he has a small child to look after He spends for our food. I paid every instalment regularly, without a break until December 2004.

But after the tsunami struck, Alwis was unable to make his loan payments. “I received the Rs. 5000 paid as government tsunami relief only twice,” Alwis said.

“I don’t know why this is, because some of my neighbours have recently been paid another instalment even though they have employment. We don’t get any rations either. I have written to the Grama Sevaka, Pradeshiya Sabha, and even to Mr. Tilak Ranaviraja, Chairman, Task Force for Relief (TAFOR) but have got no response.”

Alwis and his wife borrowed money and paid the instalments for four months on the deadline given, in fear of losing his property completely. The Assistant General Manager, Recoveries of the State Mortgage Bank, Mr. Tilakasiri, the signatory to the red notice received by Alwis, says that in the case of tsunami victims, they could make an appeal to the chairman upon which bank representatives would visit the site and make a recommendation to the board of directors. They could recommend that the debt be written off or some other solution.

Mr. Tilakasiri said the fact that the property is within the buffer zone had no bearing with the bank as the 100-metre decision had not yet been gazetted.
An official handling the subject at the Moratuwa Divisional Secretariat said if a house was within the 100-metre buffer zone, they could not help to rehabilitate it at present according to government policy. The bank too would not be able to sell the property as nobody would purchase a damaged house within the buffer zone, he said.

As regards the payment of Rs. 5000, he said that they had been directed to stop the payment to persons who had a source of income. If anyone who should be getting the payment had not received it, they could send in an appeal, he said adding that several appeals had been received and they were going through them.

However, Alwis says he has written to everyone concerned and visited them many times but to no avail. In fact, he visited the Divisional Secretariat last week and met the officer handling the subject, together with the Grama Sevaka of the area.

“When I produced documents to prove that I was not earning any income, the Grama Sevaka, told me in the presence of the DS officer, that he could not do anything for me although he knew I deserved the payment, because he had got orders from the top to pay the Rs. 5,000 only to those whose houses were completely destroyed,” Alwis said.

W.A. Karunasena of the Transitional Accommodation Project says everyone who had a house in the buffer zone is entitled to a transitional house and then to a permanent house but Alwis says he has not been given any documents to apply for these permanent houses. Nine long months after the tsunami, it seems there is no end in sight for the sufferings of tsunami survivors.

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