Johnston: Govt. did not let pandemic hinder road development programme

Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando says the bane of this country is an Opposition that is in the habit of criticising the government for the sake of doing so.

Speaking at the Mandaduwa Grounds in Weeraketiya where the government opened 1,500 roads after being newly constructed or rehabilitated on Saturday, Minister Fernando said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and incumbent government would be known in future as the only administration that delivered all its promises to the people. “Despite the pandemic we continued to work and deliver what we pledged to people. The President in his manifesto promised to develop 100,000 km of roads. We have identified 68,000 roads for development and of them work is in progress in 14,000 roads. Today we declare open 1,500 roads completed within three months. Within the next three months we’ll complete the work of 2,500 more roads. It is of paramount importance for economic development to enable people to go within a couple of hours from one end to the other. These roads will help agriproducts coming to the market and children to go to schools as well as patients to go to hospitals. They will increase connectivity and they would serve as a springboard promoting development,” the Minister said.

“Three months after the inauguration of President Rajapaksa, the country was affected by the pandemic. Our detractors said that we would not be able to get vaccines. Now we have completed vaccinating almost 70 percent of our population. Sri Lanka is among the top ten countries in the world in vaccination success. Despite criticism we continued to work. Despite the effects of pandemic, our government continued to pay our loans while we developed the country.

“We have launched projects to give water and improve other infrastructure to develop this economy.  In the meantime, the process of converting this into a green economy is in progress. We will provide organic fertiliser instead of chemical fertilisers. The Opposition could go on shouting but when the time comes people will understand who did what. The second phase of the Central Expressway and the New Kelani Bridge would be opened by the end of this month.

“I thank World Bank Vice President for South Asian region Hartwig Schafer and Asian Development Bank’s country representative Dr Chen Chen who are with us today to witness the opening of new roads. Our thanks go to the World Bank for giving us USD 500 million to develop the road network of this country.

“There is one Opposition party which cannot find anything good in what we do. They pose themselves as the guardians of suppressed people and instigate people against capitalism. Leaders of that party of the proletarians have billions of rupees in their bank accounts. People have realised their duplicity and double games so their number of seats came down from six to three. Such bankrupt Opposition parties are the bane of this nation,” the Minister said.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and other ministers were also present on the occasion.