ජාතික නිදහස් පෙරමුණේ නායක සහ ඉදිකිරීම් ඉංජිනේරු සේවා නිවාස හා පොදු පහසුකම් හිටපු අමාත්‍ය විමල් වීරවංශට විරුද්ධව අල්ලස් හා දූෂණ විමර්ශන කොමිසමට අද (14දා) පෙරවරුවේ පැමිණිල්ලක් ඉදිරිපත් විය. වීරවංශ අමාත්‍ය ධුරය දරන ලද කාලය තුළ අයථා අන්දමින් දේපළ රැස්කර තිබෙන බව සඳහන් කරමින් මෙම පැමිණිල්ල ඉදිරිපත් කළේ අපේ ජාතික පෙරමුණේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයට තරග කළ නීතිඥ නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ.කඩුවෙල ප්‍රදේශයේ අති සුඛෝපභෝගී නිවාස 2 ක් ඉදිකිරීම, එම ප්‍රදේශයෙන් ඉඩම් කිහිපයක් ලබාගැනීම, වීරවංශගේ බිරිඳ විසින් මහාපරිමාණයෙන් දේපළ රැස් කිරීම ආදිය පිළිබඳව සොයා බලන්නැයි ඉල්ලා මෙසේ පැමිණිලි කර තිබේ.
Building Mansions The Socialist Way
Shashi Weerawansa and Wimal Weerawansa
The construction of mansions worth millions of rupees has become a hallmark of the current administration with its members, from the Head of State to politicians affiliated to the government, not wasting any time in ensuring they acquire all possible luxuries within a short period of time.
The latest member of the present administration to join in the “mansion building” race is none other than National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader Wimal Weerawansa.The renegade JVP member, Weerawansa, formed the NFF claiming to bring in a breath of fresh air to the country’s political platform. Shouting slogans of patriotism, Weerawansa claimed to be a politician representing the common man.
The house in Hokandara under construction
The Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha has approved Shashi’s house plan, which is 4,865 square feet in floor extent. After making the necessary payments for inspection on June 2, 2009, the plan was approved by the Pradeshiya Sabha on July 22, 2009.
However, the real floor extent of the house, as reported in the media, is 6,770 square feet.
Rough estimates by building contractors have revealed that the construction of the house would cost close to Rs. 30 million, inclusive of all finishing touches. The contractors have pointed out that the usual cost for a square foot in a house similar to the one being built by Shashi Weerawansa would be approximately Rs. 6,000.
Therefore, if the real floor extent of the house is 6,770 square feet, the cost of construction of the house would be close to Rs. 40 million.
The amount spent on construction would be in addition to the money spent on purchasing the land. The approximate extent of the land is believed to be 30 perches and given the rough estimate of Rs. 250,000 for a perch in Mangala Mawatha, Hokandara South, the cost of the land would be approximately Rs. 7.5 million.
According to the house plan, the ground floor consists of three verandahs, hall, dining area, pantry, kitchen, store room, laundry, two bedrooms with attached bathrooms, servant’s toilet and garage area for two vehicles.
The first floor consists of three bedrooms with attached toilets, each bedroom has a large balcony, hall, dining area and pantry.
The second floor has a bedroom with an attached toilet, a large balcony and two big concrete slabs on two levels.
However, the question now is how the Weerawansas earned such a large amount of money. The funds to purchase the land and build the house could surely not have been through collecting Wimal’s salary as a parliamentarian since his defection from the JVP.
Shashi Weerawansa’s extravagant life style first came to light during Wimal Weerawansa’s days in the JVP. While Wimal, the former Marxist, was supposedly engaged in voluntary service to the public by not even accepting the parliamentarians’ salaries and other perks, Shashi was engaged in business ventures.
Commencing her business from a clothes shop and a communication center in Mawaramandiya, Shashi recently registered a company under her name to engage in the fabric business.
When Wimal spoke of the personal sacrifices made by him to work for the people, Shashi was living it up by traveling to Disneyland on holiday.
Shashi’s latest endeavor is to construct this massive house in Hokandara.
When The Sunday Leader visited the site, the house was under construction and the masons were engaged in doing the shuttering work.
During this visit, The Sunday Leader learnt that a man named Suranga was in charge of construction. However, when contacted by The Sunday Leader, Suranga said the house under construction belonged to him and that he had no connections with either Wimal Weerawansa or his wife Shashi Weerawansa.
However, Wimal has admitted on national TV that his wife was indeed building a house in the Hokandara area.
Responding to a question during a live television discussion on one of the state owned channels recently, Wimal had reportedly said that his wife was building a house with money collected by her through several business ventures and after selling a plot of land that belonged to her in Mawaramandiya. (The Sunday Leader several years back exposed the story on how Shashi acquired the Mawaramandiya land.)
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Shashi had told several confidants that the house she was planning on building was not as large as the one shown in the plan. She had said her plan was to build a small house with the basic facilities for the family to move into.
Be that as it may, the financial constraints faced by the country at present seem to be of little concern to most of the people’s representatives as they fight among themselves to take the lead in the “mansion building” race.
Text and Photos by Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema
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