A departmental head connected to the country’s defense establishment has struck it rich!

His sudden fortune has come up from a gem-rich gravel deposit lying beneath a streambed. The stream, a tributary of Kelani River is one running through the Dompe area, they say.

The tons of gemstone bearing gravel dug out from the streambed by using heavy machinery is being dumped on a land owned by the departmental head and the khaki-clad tribe, though well aware of the activity going on day and night, has turned a blind eye for fear of reprisals, informed sources say. 

The men and women in the department who discuss this illicit gem mining exercise in hushed tones say: “Our Lokka lectures to us for hours on end on the need to enforce the law to the letter. But this is the example he has set!”