48 small businesses lost to SAARC security

Forty eight small scale business places at Kotte Road in Rajagiriya were dismantled this morning (July 16th), purportedly for the safety of foreign dignitaries attending next month’s SAARC summit in Colombo.
After a very short notice, the Urban Development Authority and the Welikada Police had come, armed with a court order and backhoes, and razed the buildings to the ground.

These traders say their livelihoods that had provided for them for the past 20 years, are gone now.

Many have also lost a place to live, as they had used the buildings as their dwellings as well.

Former Kotte Mayor Chandra de Silva had constructed these buildings.

Traders had been paying electricity and water bills as well as taxes to the municipal council.

The present mayor had said that she could do nothing as the order had come from a very high place.