KELUM BANDARA 
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‘I will move in two months’ time’- CBK
Colombo, September (Daily Mirror) - In the wake of the enactment of the Presidents’ Entitlements (Repeal) Act, former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who governed between 1994 and 2005, said that she would vacate her official residence in two months’ time.
Making an exclusive comment to Daily Mirror on her next move after the new law came into effect, she said that she had found a house which is under renovation at the moment for her to occupy in Colombo. She said a three-month notice must be given for anyone occupying a government house before he or she vacates the premises, according to the regulations. She said she had not yet been notified in this regard. However, she said she would not take more than two months to move out, and it would be even less if renovation work was completed ahead of schedule.
Asserting that she was recovering from a hip replacement surgery after a fall three weeks ago, she said she could not move down even from upstairs.
“I found a small house with some renovation to be done. My son said he would come and help me for a week. In the meantime, three weeks ago, I fell and fractured my hip. I had a hip placement surgery. It is a serious surgery. I have physiotherapy two or three times a day. Therefore, I cannot move and do any work at that new house at the moment,” she said.
Pending the enactment of the new law, she said that she also wrote to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake asking for permission to live in the current place for the rest of her life by paying the government-assessed rent, but it was declined. She said she sought further stay in the same place under new arrangements since moving out was difficult for her during her old age, surviving two bouts of cancer within 15 years.
“I even agreed to pay for repairs,” she said, adding that she had already paid Rs.14 million out of her pocket for renovation, repair and refurbishment of it after it was assigned to her as her official residence in retirement.
“When I came here, there was not even a blade of grass here. It was only gravel. I got landscaping done. The Mahinda Rajapaksa government refused to pay it at that time,” she said.
In my correspondence with the President, she said she mentioned that she was the only one out of the five retired Presidents not to be investigated by the current government.
“I have not done anything wrong,” she said.
“From the day when Anura Kumara Dissanayake started shouting on election platforms, he did not say anything about how they were going to resolve the country’s problems. They were talking about dealing with corruption. That, of course, is very good. Still, they don’t know how to prevent corruption in their own government. They only keep shouting about capturing fraudsters. They did not say a word about developing the country. Education is in a mess. Health is a mess. The only other slogan they had is chasing the former Presidents out of their residences. I did not give a hoot. In many countries, there are many more privileges than this. Even in India, there are better privileges,” Ms. Kumaratunga said.
She said, “I don’t have a house in Colombo. My one and only house was in Rosmead Place. I have sold it. I live off that money. I have not indulged in corruption.”
During her hunting for houses, she said that there were people who were willing to offer her houses on rent.
“Once I inspected these houses and settled for them, owners came out with various excuses not to proceed with the transactions. Then I heard they were worried the JVP would deploy their beloved media man called ‘Suda’ who slandered me in filth. When he started slandering me in obscene language, the house owners were worried that the JVP would hound them,”
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