Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya will hold talks with representatives of the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) on Monday over the group’s occupation of an abandoned property at Malwana, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education said in a statement.
The discussion is scheduled for May 18 at the Prime Minister’s Office under Amarasuriya’s patronage, with relevant parties expected to attend. Decisions on further action will be taken after the meeting, the statement said.
Amarasuriya, who is also the Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education, has “turned her attention” to the situation involving students who have been forcibly residing at the property for several days, Ada Derana reported. The residence at Malwana is administered by the Dompe Divisional Secretariat.
A group of IUSF students entered the residence on May 14, claiming that it had previously belonged to former minister Basil Rajapaksa and had since been abandoned. According to IUSF representatives, the move was intended to demand that properties allegedly acquired with public funds be returned for public use and used for proper faculty complexes and student hostels to ease the shortage of facilities at state universities.
The Prime Minister’s intervention marks the first formal government engagement on the standoff since the occupation began, and follows a public dispute between the IUSF and the rival, FSP-aligned IUSC group over the tactic of physically taking over the residence.
