JVP accuses govt. of letting profiteers fleece public

By Saman Indrajith

The government has let profiteers fleece the pandemic-hit people, says JVP women’s wing, ‘Women for Rights’.

Addressing the media at the JVP headquarters, Secretary of the WfR, Samanmalee Gunasinghe said: “Now the country is literally run by businessmen. It is not the government that decides the prices of essential commodities such as rice, sugar, milk powder, cement and gas. The government no longer wields power against large scale businessmen and importers, who dictate terms. People are questioning what the use of a government is if the country is run by businessmen, importers and black marketeers.

The government comprises politicians who line their pockets with the support of big time businessmen. For the commissions they receive from the businessmen the ministers have allowed them to exploit people. All our economic problems are due to corruption and theft of public funds. There was one exposure by Pandora Papers of a sum of Rs 35 billion unexplained assets. This is only a faction of what they have taken from people of this country. People are in debt, the country is in debt while mothers lament that they cannot find milk for their children but the rulers are getting richer and richer.”

Gunasinghe said that the majority of housewives used gas for cooking. “We cannot go back to firewood because there isn’t sufficient firewood as the country has been taken to the age of concrete after clearing jungles. Now, the price of gas cylinders has been increased by 84 percent. There is a new queue of women to purchase kerosene cookers. The price of a kerosene cooker was at Rs 500 yesterday morning. By evening the traders jacked up the price to Rs 950 seeing the demand. The kerosene cooker that was at Rs 1,500 has been increased to Rs 4,500”, she said. President of the WfR, Sarojini Savithri Paulraj said that the Trade Ministry and the Consumer Affairs Authority should be disbanded as

the economy was controlled by the rice millers and import companies. All recent governments ruling this country had deals with the rice millers.

Bread and other flour-based products are the staple food for many families in the plantation sector. Now a loaf of bread has gone up to Rs 65, a bun to Rs 50 and a cup of tea Rs 30. When people spend that much of their earnings on food, how can they spend on the education and other needs of their children? Are we supposed to stop children being sent to school because we have to spend everything we earn on food?

WFR Executive committee member Prabhashini Wickramasinghe also addressed the press.