President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday said that a retired judge is to sit in a committee to probe incidents that led to the Meethotamulla tragedy. The President also said that if necessary, legal action would be contemplated depending on the recommendation of the judge.
He stressed that there should not be a repetition in the future. He said although the government will pay compensation to the next of kin, it cannot give them back the price of the lives lost in the tragedy.
“I have had three rounds of talks to resolve this issue before the tragedy took place. We discussed this issue at Cabinet level”, he said
The President added that the tug of war between the institutions handling the issue are solely responsible for the tragedy. “We know that people make money out of garbage trucks going in and going out of the Meethotamulla garbage dump by way of extortion”, he said
President Sirisena added that he has directed the Army engineers and Urban Development Authority to get involved in removing the garbage dump.
Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said a new garbage holding facility has been set up at Kirindiwela which could extract water out of garbage and recycle them.
He added that waste management is a must which should start from home. He said that the government will establish sanitary landfills to solve this issue.