‘Protect these houses like your own life’

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has asked new house owners not to mortgage property at a ceremony to hand over flats to those who lost houses in the Kajimawatte fire.

“This house you get today will become your most valuable property. It is your responsibility to use it safely. Do not mortgage or sell these houses after suffering for the last ten years. I request you to protect these houses like your own life,” Wickremesinghe said.

More than 290 houses at the Randiya Uyana housing complex in Modara were handed over to people from Kajimawatte whose houses were gutted by a fire in 2010.

“The people of Kajimawatte have been living in a place like hell. It is impossible to imagine how they lived there.”