Govt. should be ashamed of asking pandemic victims to tighten their belts – JVP

By Saman Indrajith

The JVP has said the government should be ashamed of asking the pandemic-hit people to tighten their belts instead of granting them relief.

Addressing the media at the JVP Headquarters in Pelawatte yesterday (26), party’s Propaganda Secretary MP Vijitha Herath said: “The government is asking people to drink less water, eat less food, use electricity sparingly, limit the use of fuel, curtail the consumption of gas, control taking of medicine and help reduce the outflow of dollars. Do we need a government to ask people to tighten their belts while they are still struggling to come out of the crises of shortages created by its own short-sighted policies?

“There is a power crisis, which will affect the water supply. Fuel crisis will take its toll on the transport sector. The country is under a pall of uncertainty. The government is speaking of promoting tourism while the foreign countries have issued travel warnings to their citizens who are thinking of visiting Sri Lanka that there will be power cuts, train suspensions, water cuts at any given time here. Canada did so recently. Can anyone imagine developing tourism in such a context? The tourists are worried that there can be water or power cuts or gas explosions in their hotels at any time,” he said.

“The government has said there will be no power cuts until Thursday. Who knows what will happen thereafter? The CEB’s hydro power generation has dropped drastically. It will decrease further. Minister Udaya Gammanpila says that there are no dollars for fuel imports. However, the government spent USD 374 million to import vegetables and fruits during 11 months in 2020. In 2021, the corresponding figure was at USD 415 million. So it has dollars to import fruits and vegetables but no dollars for fuel. It is clear that there is some sort of conspiracy behind this situation.”