UNP asks govt. to come down to earth

by Piyasena Dissanayake

UNP Chairman former minister Wajira Abeywardene yesterday called on government ministers to pay a visit to super markets and check the high prices of organic food in shelves and that would enable them to realise that the majority of people cannot afford them.

“This means that the majority of people cannot depend on organic agriculture alone. It also shows the shortsightedness of the government in their so-called organic food drive,” Abeywardene said addressing a meeting of professionals at the Galle District UNP office on Saturday.

Abeywardene said that it is now realized by people that only the UNP under the leadership of former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could salvage this nation from a crisis imminent. “Tea industry is at its death throes. Situation is the same with almost every cash crop. Agriculture industry in this country has never seen a disaster of this nature. Now shops have shelves of organic foods increasingly since that is coming to the market after the government’s experiment. Their prices are so exorbitant that the majority of people cannot buy them. The ministers should visit supermarkets to see how the majority of consumers walk past those shelves to realise that soon the majority of people would face severe food shortage,” he said.

“The end result is clear. The country is being led to a famine. Industries are being closed. For example, the construction industry has collapsed owing to cement shortage and hundreds of thousands of construction workers, including masons, electricians, carpenters and supportive servicemen such as daily-wage earners working at building sites have been rendered jobless. There is a severe tile shortage, too.

“This is not a crisis we can solve by blaming each other for the status quo. We must come together to change this. Only the UNP leader could steer the country out of this crisis. We have to think out of the box and strengthen it as much as possible,” Abeywardene said.