The ceremony, held at the Defence Services College auditorium in Colombo 2, saw 65 Army personnel, 21 Sailors and 14 Airmen from Kandy District who had actively contributed to the restoration of peace in Sri Lanka during the humanitarian operations, received keys to those new houses.

These new houses were erected in blocks of land, owned by those recipient War Heroes themselves. Construction work of those houses was carried out by Sri Lanka Navy personnel using their labour and technical know-how.

President Maithripala Sirisena during the ceremony symbolically handed over the keys to beneficiaries in the presence of a distinguished gathering including Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils, Mr Faizar Mustapha, Governors, Secretaries, Defence Secretary, Chief of Defence Staff, Commander of the Army, Navy and Air Force Commanders, Inspector General of Police and a section of officials and officers representing tri-services.

Last year, 25 service personnel in the same District under the 1st Phase of the programme were awarded new houses.  

In the past few years after the culmination of the war, a dozen of such housing projects were successfully completed by the Ministry of Defence in Kandy, Puttlam, Kurunegala, Matara, Hambantota, Moneragala, Badulla, Galle, Ampara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Kalutara, Kegalle, Polonnaruwa, Gampaha, Ratnapura, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Colombo and Anuradhapura Districts, providing decent and deserving state-of-the-art houses to War Heroes of the Armed Forces.

Ministry of Defence which launched the ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ fund and the housing project with generosity, being extended by each and every Sri Lankan and the expatriate community, maintains that invaluable sacrifices of valiant War Heroes for territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Nation, should always be held in high esteem by rewarding them in whatever the way possible. (Army media)