UNP feels sorry for people undergoing economic hardships

UNP Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijewardene yesterday said the most tragic scene he had witnessed in his political life was people waiting in queues without means to celebrate the New Year.

Addressing the media at his office in Hyde Park Corner in Colombo, the UNP Deputy Leader said people had to waste hours in queues at the time the New Year was dawning because the government had no proper plans to govern the country. “People should have been able to stay at their homes with children to celebrate the dawn of the new year. Instead they had to be in milk powder, kerosene and gas queues. This is the most regrettable scene to be witnessed because they had to pay for the follies of the government. There had been a time when people lined up before cloth stores to buy new clothes for the New Year. This year there are no such queues because people have no money. People have been compelled to mark the New Year with gas explosions. They have  no way of buying milk powder for their children, no money to buy new clothes, prices of potato, onion and rice have skyrocketed.

The vegetable price too is the same.

The Finance Minister went abroad without thinking of people. It is said that he is back.

“The country is going backwards because of the dollar shortage. The Central Bank governor said that forex reserves increased upto USD 3.1 billion. He somehow has failed to state how the increase had been made. We can get required amounts of rice, onion, vegetables and fruits using the Indian Credit Line as pointed out by our leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. If we won’t do so, there would be a famine in the coming weeks,” Wijewardene said.

He said that throughout history people had been better off financially only under UNP governments. He called on people to work for the victory of the UNP if they want to get rid of the financial crisis because only the UNP had sound plans to solve the crisis.