Sri Lanka, Dec. 12 -- Amidst claims of the opposition that the government failed to act on prior warnings on the disaster situation, Cabinet Spokesman Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said yesterday people in landslide prone areas were warned well in advance to evacuate by the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), police and security forces, based on forecast of the Meteorology Department, which saved thousands of lives.

He told the weekly briefing to announce Cabinet decisions that some people were reluctant to evacuate thinking that they would not be affected based on their previous experience in the 2017 floods and so on.

"The best example is the situation in Mavil Aru. Those people had to be forcefully removed by the security forces," he said...