Residents of the Mattegoda housing scheme held a silent protest in the centre of Mattegoda town on Sunday against the site chosen for a new funeral hall, to be built at a cost of nearly Rs. 40 million from the Homagama Pradeshiya Sabha general fund.
The demonstration was organised by a group calling itself the Mattegoda Protection Collective, Hiru News reported. Protesters stood with placards before marching to the plot of land itself, where the protest ended.
The objection is to the site, not the building
Residents are not opposing the facility in principle. They say a funeral hall is needed for the roughly 1,200 houses in the Mattegoda scheme — but argue it should be built somewhere other than the 80-perch plot the Pradeshiya Sabha has earmarked.
Protesters described the location as a sensitive one for three reasons. A large number of houses sit directly adjacent to the land. A public bathing well, in use for many years, stands on the same plot. And a public playground and a maternal and child clinic building are located nearby.
Photographs of the protest show hand-painted boards and a banner reading, in Sinhala, “Don’t bring a funeral hall in among the houses” — signed by the residents’ collective.
Not reported
The report does not state when the Homagama Pradeshiya Sabha approved the project, whether construction has been tendered or begun, or whether any alternative site has been formally proposed by the residents. No response from the Pradeshiya Sabha or from local councillors was carried, and no official was named.
Sri Lankan local authorities fund funeral halls, or awamangalyashala, from their general funds as a standard community facility; disputes over siting them close to housing are a recurring feature of suburban local-government politics.
