President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has directed officials to fast-track the resettlement of families in the Kandy District displaced by Cyclone Ditwah, the President’s Media Division said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the Kandy Special District Coordinating Committee meeting held at the Kandy District Secretariat, the President reviewed the progress of releasing the land required for resettlement at the Divisional Secretariat level and stressed the need to promptly resolve outstanding issues, according to Ada Derana.
The Kandy directive extends the government’s resettlement push beyond the Matale and Batticaloa districts that have dominated Ditwah recovery coverage so far. The hill-country district was among those hardest hit by flooding and landslides in November 2025, with damage to upland tea estates, smallholder homes and roads. NBRO has previously issued landslide warnings for Kandy alongside Kegalle, Ratnapura and Nuwara Eliya as the southwest monsoon approaches.
The President earlier this week announced a Rs. 500 billion year-end allocation for Ditwah reconstruction projects covering housing, roads and irrigation, with Matale among the named districts. Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya has separately set a year-end deadline for the bulk of Ditwah reconstruction, and the army engineers are building 1,000 interim shelters by end-May for families still in temporary accommodation.
The Kandy meeting did not announce a new financial allocation or a specific resettlement target. Officials at the Divisional Secretariat level have been tasked with releasing state land for displaced families, with the President saying the process should be completed without delay.
According to figures published in The Island on May 14, the President individually consulted Divisional Secretaries on the progress of compensation for 12,169 houses reported as partially damaged across the district. Of the 4,488 families currently eligible, only 3,038 have received compensation. A further 1,583 high-risk houses require full resettlement, alongside thousands of others awaiting NBRO technical reports. The President called for new lands to be identified for relocation, with particular attention to the plantation community living on private estates, and discussed reclaiming government lands currently managed by private companies to facilitate housing projects.
