Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The court yard house at 199 Temple Road, Nallur, constructed in the
1880s, has now been restored to its original glory by Mr. C.Angelandren,
one of the most celebrated architects in Sri Lanka. It has now become the
Sri Lanka Archive for contemporary Art, Architecture and Design.
While the cataloguing and archiving are still in progress, it is now already
open to the public. Its opening ceremony took place on 26 January 2014
with C.Amalendran as the Chief Guest. With his characteristic eccentric
brilliance he stole the attention of the audience through his awesome
lecture. It is of great interest to note that Angelandran is the grandson of the
great mathematician, C.Sundaralingam, who was also renowned for his
eccentric brilliance, except that his chosen controversial political career
ended in disaster. I cannot miss noticing, with due reverence of course, the
legendary eccentric brilliance running from grandfather to grandson.
This court yard house is owned by Anushia Kumaraswamy, who is a cousin
of C.Angelandran. The Indian High Commission of pre-independent India
was located in this house and Mr.Kumaraswamy himself was the High
Commissioner for British India. At the invitation of Handy Peripanayagam,
Mahatma Gandi visited Jaffna around 1938 to engage in discussions on the
independence movement that was taking shape in Sri Lanka under the
leadership of Handy and the Tamil Youth Congress of Jaffna. Not only
Gandi stayed in this house at that time but later Jawarlal Nehru also stayed
in this house when he visited Jaffna around 1940. What a marvelous,
sensational and heart rendering history this house embodies! We are
privileged that such a historical treasure house has now been restored to
its original glory and turned into an Architectural Museum thanks to
Anushia and Angelandran for this philanthropic work. It has not only made
the heritage of Jaffna rich but has contributed to the architectural
excellence of Sri Lanka.
The staffs, headed by Sharmini, are managing this venue with great care
and devotion and are very warm and welcoming. Can you believe that I
discovered this house only by accident, which makes me wonder how
many more hidden wonders are there in Jaffna?
Sooriasegaram
shortfall. There are also other viable schemes to consider in the future such
as river for Jaffna, salt water exclusion through barriers, making fresh water
lagoons to replenishing underground storage caverns with fresh water etc.
Under the above scenario the Killinochchi farmers will receive more water
than they have ever been receiving as soon as the bunds are raised and
subsequently when additional sources of water are included they will
receive even more water for irrigation, which will permit rice cultivation in
both seasons and also other high value crops including vegetable
cultivation where possible.
The fact that the drawdown of water for drinking water supply from
Iranaimadu tank is only 10% of its capacity, that it is going to be only in
stages, that more sources of water are going to be added to this scheme,
that irrigation water management will be in place, that water waste due to
leaks in canals will be eliminated, that the capacity of the Iranaimadu
Kulam is going to be substantially increased by raising the embankment by
2 feet and finally the numerous safeguards provided in the M.O.U will all
cumulatively provide more than ample protection for the Kilinochchi
farmers, who can therefore safely and happily permit drinking water to the
people of Jaffna, the islands and Poonakari while being able to cultivate
enough rice and other crops to their full capacity. They can rest assured
that their livelihood will not be compromised in any way.
The farmers concerns must also be seen in the context that Sri Lanka has
now attained self sufficiency in food for the first time since independence.
In fact we have started to export rice now. We probably now have to think
of investing in storage technology to store our surplus crops as a buffer
stock for periods of severe crop failures and for export earnings.
It is commendable that engineers have now got their designs and safety
factors correct by including supplementary sources of water. It is equally
important that they discharge their ethical and moral duty to engage with
the farmers and convince that it is a win-win situation for them. The farmers
must be proud of the fact that Killinochchi is providing both food and
drinking water to people in Jaffna, who will of course be grateful to farmers
The total cost of designing and constructing the above mentioned irrigation,
drinking water and sanitation facilities in the Northern Province is
estimated to be Rs.18, 328 million, funded by Asian Development Bank
(Rs.10, 056 M), French Development Agency (Rs.5368 M) and
Government of Sri Lanka (Rs.2905 M). This excludes the cost of adding
supplementary water sources, for which the Government of Sri Lanka will
arrange the funds necessary.