Government investigations won’t pin responsibility for gas explosions: JVP

by Sirimantha Ratnasekara

The JVP last week asked people not to have hopes that the government investigations would identify those responsible for the unexplained gas explosions/fires in various parts of the country during the past few days.

“This is a government that could not bring to the book those responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage. Therefore, people should not have high hopes that the ongoing investigations would find those responsible for the incidents of explosions owing to gas leaks,” JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Thursday addressing a press conference at party headquarters in Pelawatte.

He said that the president has appointed a committee which will submit a report within two weeks.

“Don’t be surprised or upset if the committee does not find anyone responsible for the gas explosions. It is certain that no politician or official will be found responsible for what has happened,” Dissaanayake said.

“Today we have a government which has no sense of what is happening around us and the dangers this country will face in the coming months. The government needs over six billion US Dollars within the next three months for the import of essentials, honoring letters of credits (LCs), and the payment of debt installments, but has no proper plan to attract required foreign exchange to meet these obligations. There is a serious decrease of funds flowing into the country, including the decline of inflows from migrant workers in 2021 compared to 2020.

“In June 2020, migrant workers remitted 573 million US Dollars. In June 2021, it declined 16% to USD 475 million. Migrant worker remittances were down 50% in September 2021 from a year earlier. The government has no proper plan to bring migrant worker earnings back to Sri Lanka. The Cabinet of Ministers is not finding solutions for the economic crisis that we are in.

“President Gotabaya Rajapaksa does not even seem to know what the crisis is all about. His decisions suggest that he is unaware of the depth of the crisis as his decisions are not those that a President should take during a crisis; his decisions worsened the crisis.

“Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is focused on other things. Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa has not divulged proper details about this crisis to Parliament,” Dissanayake said.

The JVP leader said that there were clear indicators of the worsening economic crisis all around us.

“Over 1,000 containers with essential goods are held-up at the Colombo Port. Even though the goods are imported, banks are not releasing dollars to clear them. The Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery has been closed as there are no dollars to import crude oil. There are critical shortages and prices are increasing daily,” he said.