The Disaster Management Centre requests the general public not to be deceived by claims made by various individuals who promise to grant disaster relief.
The request is being made after an incident was reported from the Walapane Divisional Secretariat in the Nuwara Eliya district.
According to the DMC, an individual has informed a house owner from Walapane that a Rs.500,000 compensation claim has been approved for damages caused to her residence.
The house owner has been then requested to deposit a sum to claim the compensation amount.
However, after the house owner had indicated that she is not in possession of the required sum, the individual who was carrying out the fraud has visited the house, taken a gold chain and informed the owner that she should visit the District DMC office the next day to obtain the claim.
Accordingly she has visited the DMC office in the Nuwara Eliya district yesterday.
The Assistant Director of the DMC has lodged a complaint with Police after uncovering the incident.
Issuing a statement, the DMC reiterated that it will not charge any sum to provide public services and therefore citizens should refrain from paying any money to persons related to DMC services.
It also requested the public to report such incidents immediately to the nearest Police station.
