UNP MP Lakshman Seneviratne yesterday told Parliament that a 90 perches plot of the Mahiyangana Public ground had been encroached by a powerful SLFP politician for an unauthorised construction despite a decision by the consultative committee on Urban Development and Sacred Area Development that any type of construction should not be allowed within the Mahiyangana Town until the development plan of the Mahiyangana Sacred Town had been submitted.

Questioned on what basis these constructions were carried out, Urban Development and Sacred Area Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that information provided by the MP was not correct. According to the decision taken at the Consultative Committee on 05/03/2008, any type of unauthorised construction was not allowed, he said.

Raising supplementary questions, the UNP MP said that an SLFP organiser in the area had handed over plots of lands to his friend for a sum of Rs. 580,000.

Minister Gunawardena said that the UNP MP should go before the Commission to Investigate Allegations on Bribery or Corruption rather than using parliamentary privileges to sling mud at his political enemies.

Minister Gunawardena said that Mahiyangana town had been declared a sacred area and been renovated under the instructions of the Chief Incumbent of Mahiyangana Raja Maha Vihara to prepare the town for Buddha Jayanthi 2600 (2010 AD) to mark the Buddha’s first visit to the island.

The shops and business establishments within the town area were being renovated under this programme, he said.

MP Seneviratne then said that 90 perches of the public playground had been encroached on by an SLFP organiser of the area to build an unauthorised construction and the Leader of the House, Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva, was well aware of this and he challenged him to deny it.

Health Minister Silva, however, did not deny it.

"Minister Silva who is in the Uva more than Minister Gunawardena, knows the truth, that’s why he is silent," MP Seneviratne said.