In recent days, the Voice of the Plantation People Organization (VOPP) conducted a series of awareness meetings across several estates in the Matara District to educate plantation communities on the current status of the Malaiyaha (Plantation) people’s land issue, possible solutions, the existing legal framework, and the role that communities themselves can play in addressing these challenges.
The meetings were held on the following dates and locations:
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06 January 2026 – Selvakanda Estate
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07 January 2026 – Halpanthenna Estate
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08 January 2026 – Petna Estate
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10 January 2026 – Kurulugala Estate
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11 January 2026 – E.W. Division, Viharahena
These discussions were facilitated by Mr. Anton Wanatthiyya, Field Manager of VOPP, together with volunteer activists.
During the meetings, community members openly shared the land- and housing-related problems they are currently facing. Particular concern was raised over the fact that many families who have been allocated only seven perches of land have still not been provided with legal deeds or permits. Participants also highlighted serious social and family issues caused by two or three families being forced to live together in old and extremely small line rooms.
The communities strongly emphasized the urgent need for durable, just, and rights-based solutions to these long-standing land and housing issues.
VOPP reaffirmed that, as an organization rooted in and working alongside plantation communities, it will extend its full support to all future actions and initiatives undertaken to address and resolve the land and housing rights issues of the Malaiyaha people.
