North remains least developed part of SL despite promises of prosperity – MP Wigneswaran

BUDGET DEBATE

By Saman Indrajith

Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani (TMTK) Jaffna District MP CV Wigneswaran told Parliament on Thursday that the North remains the least developed part of the country despite all the promises of prosperity by the rulers.

Participating in the second reading debate on Budget 2021 proposal MP Wigneawaran said: “Even 11 years after the end of the war, the Northern and Eastern Provinces remain the regions with the highest poverty headcount ratio. While the country’s poverty headcount ratio that is the proportion of the population living below the poverty line (4.1 percent in 2016), the Northern and Eastern Provinces had poverty headcount ratios of 7.7 percent and 7.3 percent respectively. According to data from the Department of Census and Statistics, all four districts with double-digit poverty headcount ratios are in Northern and Eastern Provinces.

“The unemployment rate in Northern and Eastern Provinces remains high, indicating the lack of job creation during the post-conflict era. Almost a decade since the end of the war, most of the Northern districts have the highest unemployment rates in the country. According to the Labour Force Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics in Sri Lanka, the unemployment rate in Jaffna remains higher than elsewhere.

“Sri Lanka’s budget deficit in 2021 is expected to be nine percent of the GDP. Government revenue is expected to reach Rs.1.9 Trillion in 2021 and State expenditure will see a new high of Rs.3.52 Trillion. The Budget deficit of Rs. 1.56 Trillion will be financed via 37-40 percent of foreign finance while the remainder will be financed domestically.

“A systematic review of Sri Lanka’s post-war defense budget reveals that the country spends too much on defense and the defense budget is spent inefficiently. I wonder if the Auditor General has supervisory control over the spending.

“During 1983 – 87, our average defense budget was 421 Million US Dollars. In 2009, it was Rs. 214 billion. In 2019, it was Rs. 306 billion. In 2020 it was Rs. 312 billion and for the next year, it is Rs. 355 billion. The allocation for defense next year compared to 2019 is an increase of 16 % which is 49 billion”.

MP Wigneswaran urged the government to admit that the Northern people have been systematically marginalized, and make genuine efforts to amend the wrongs inflicted on them. “Acknowledge you have committed wrongs to the Tamil community and try to mend your differences with us. All we want is the right to look after ourselves in our traditional areas and govern it the way we want. That is not separation. That is devolution. That gives meaning to the theory of subsidiarity”.

“According to this theory political decisions must be taken at a local level rather than by a Central authority. We do not want outsiders to expropriate our assets and resources. We do not want our lands to be grabbed away anymore by outsiders. We want to govern our areas in accordance with our traditions and conventions.

“We want to do our fishing by ourselves in our traditional areas. We contributed up to 43 percent of the fish requirements of the country in 1983. Now our fishermen are constricted and curtailed from going out into sea by the Navy as well as fishermen from elsewhere. The government must therefore focus more on the North and East which lag behind the other provinces in terms of development due to the war that lasted for nearly 30 years,” MP Wigneswaran said.