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CBK moves to Ranaviru bungalow
The office catering to disabled soldiers — the Ranaviru Seva Authority — has been closed and shifted elsewhere to accommodate former President Chandrika Kumaratunga who must leave President’s House shortly.
Months before she knew she would have to vacate “Janadipathi Mandiraya” Ms. Kumaratunga embarked on plans to identify and secure a new abode for her.

It was a spacious government bungalow near Colombo’s Independence Square. This is where the disabled soldiers, men and women who lost their limbs or sustained injuries during the separatist war, went in to seek redress for their problems.

The Authority has been told to move into an office in a crowded part of the city – the second floor of the former Board of Investment (BOI) building in Colombo Fort.

“We have to go by bus and suffer the agony of trudging to the upper floor”, a soldier who had one leg told The Sunday Times. He spoke on grounds of anonymity. He said it was very easy to access the previous location. “We could even enter the place in a three wheeler or a scooter and get down at the door step. But we cannot take a scooter upstairs.”

Unspecified amounts are being poured into this house for additions and extensions. A significant feature is the money that is being spent to raise the boundary walls, as the picture above shows.

This is despite Ms. Kumaratunga’s plan to construct her own residence on a plot of state land, one and a half acres in extent, near the Parliament complex at Madiwela and an earlier plan to construct a complex closeby which was stopped after public protests.

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