President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is halfway in his term, is “butchering” the country’s economic development, charged ‘Development Watch’ member Asanka Mahagedaragamage. The economy has fallen lower from where President Rajapaksa has started, he told a media briefing by development watchdog at ‘Workers Union’ at Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte this morning (Nov. 28th).
Mr. Mahagedaragamage said, “Today, Sri Lanka’s debt stands at Rs. 3,301,990 million. Just yesterday, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told Parliament that a Sri Lankan owes Rs. 163,425 to the world.”
“Today, 22.7 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. Dependents of Samurdhi allowance is half of the country’s 20 million population. Public health has deteriorated. Budgetary allocations for health and development are lower than last year. One-third of the country’s children suffer from malnutrition. Also, one in every five births are of underweight babies. This is a very serious situation. What will happen is that the future generation will become mentally-retarded.”
Spokesman of ‘Development Watch’ attorney Nanda Muruttettuwegama said, “Today, Sri Lanka’s development is centred on a single family in Medamulana and a group of 700 to 800 surrounding it. It is unfortunate that the country’s development has narrowed down to such a level.”
He had this to say about the collapse of the local tea industry.
“The income of three million people of this country comes from the tea industry. It is the livelihood of one-seventh of the population. Although President Mahinda had boasted that the biggest relief from the budget would be given for tea cultivators, this budget had allocated not a cent for them. This government is trying to draw parallels between the world economic crisis and the crisis facing the tea industry. But, I want to make it clear that the tea industry crisis is a problem of this country. It has nothing to do with the world economic crisis.”
“That can be explained by the fact that Indian tea exports had increased in the recent past. When the price for Ceylon Tea and its exports go down, India’s prices and exports have increased rapidly. This is the same situation in China and Kenya. Their exports have gone up.”
‘Development Watch’ members, former Test cricketer Hashan Tilakaratne and North Western Provincial councilor Upulanganie Malagamuwa also addressed the media briefing.
