The Cabinet has approved a comprehensive empowerment programme for communities hit by Cyclone Ditwah, extending rent support for displaced families and ordering the clearing of debris-buried paddy fields in the hardest-hit districts.
The proposal was submitted by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in his capacity as Minister of Finance and combines immediate relief with longer-term recovery measures.
Monthly rent support for displaced families still without homes has been extended from six months to nine, the Cabinet decided. Paddy fields covered with stones, soil and sand are to be cleared and prepared for cultivation, with works costed against estimates approved by district agricultural officials.
Rockfall and landslide-prone sites identified by the National Building Research Organisation will be stabilised under the Ministry of Defence’s Landslide Mitigation Programme. Funding for relief and reconstruction will be allocated directly by the Treasury from existing disaster relief funds, the Cabinet decision states.
The decision builds on the digital compensation system rolled out by the National Disaster Relief Services Centre in May and follows the IOM cash transfer programme that closed in seven districts at the end of May.
The November 2025 cyclone caused damage estimated at over $4 billion and left more than 600 people dead, with displaced families still occupying transitional shelter across the Northern, North-Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces more than six months on. The Cabinet did not disclose the total package value or a breakdown between rent support, paddy restoration and landslide stabilisation.
