Lokuge admits he intervened to have Piliyandala lockdown lifted to protect daily wage earners

by Sanath Nanayakkare

Transport Minister Gamini Lokuge, yesterday, said in an interview with Hiru News, that he had influenced the lifting of the lockdown in Piliyandala for the sake of daily-wage earners.

“There has been extensive coverage in the media about this. If the lifting of the isolation of Piliyandala was wrong then it should have been reimposed again,” he said.

When asked whether he had spoken to the Commander of the Army about it, he said, “A superintendent of police who was with me there spoke to the Army Commander subsequent to the discussion we had because he was a responsible figure of the coronavirus task force and an MP couldn’t act on it.”

Asked when health authorities in the area had decided to lockdown the area and the Director General of Health issued instructions to that effect and whether the minister’s intervention meant that there was no ground for that decision, Lokuge said, “There was a flaw in that decision. There are about 200,000 residents in the area. And isolation would have affected their livelihoods. There are so many self-employed people. Tuk-tuk drivers, bus operators, bakery owners, etc., would have been hit hard as a result of that decision,”

Responding to a question on how the lockdown imposed on the morning of 02 May had been lifted on the same evening, he said,” Don’t ask me. Ask the health authorities. I never requested the health authorities to lift it. There was no need for me to do that. My duty was to present the case to them and then it was up to them to analyse the ground situation based on data and make a decision. How can I make such decisions?”

Asked if politicians in other parts of the country had intervened in the same way and influenced to roll back coronavirus travel restrictions, would it have been correct, the Minister said,” It is not brainless people who have been appointed as health authorities. They should know better to tell the politicians whether it can be done.The authorities need to know whether a minister’s order of this nature can be accepted or not.”

The Minister said that he shouldn’t be held responsible for any potential Covid deaths in the area. It has to be handled by the health authorities. I only presented the case and they made the decision to lift the lockdown order. I did my duty as a politician of the area,” he said.

At the time of writing this, it was reported by MOH that the Piliyandala Trade Complex was closed until further notice as 101 Covid-19 cases were detected during random tests.