A business-minded sibling of a leading political authority at the centre has purchased a four-acre block of land with a rambling Walauwa on it in the upcountry for a whopping Rs.450 million for the purpose of constructing a 5-star hotel. 

The owner had wanted to dispose of this land and the Walauwa on it as he realized that he could not put up any new building or develop the land for any commercial purposes for it involved clearing the forest cover on the hill slope protecting the perennial water resource. However, this aspect had not bothered the buyer. 

Prior to purchasing the land, the powerful political authority had asked the responsible state officials whom he had sent for whether they could cite any reason for disallowing the proposed hotel project and the latter had reportedly answered in the negative for fear of incurring the displeasure of the political authority.

The sibling of the political authority has already finalized the preliminaries to start work on the hotel project, they say.