Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Tuesday, 21 January 2025 02:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
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SJB MP and Chief Opposition Whip |
Samagi Jana Balaw-agaya (SJB) MP and Chief Opposition Whip Gayantha Karunatilake on Sunday charged that whilst the National People’s Power (NPP) Government is getting ready to present its maiden Budget, people are facing severe economic hardships.
He expressed hope that the Government will pay its gratitude to people for giving more than two-third majority in the Parliament.
“Despite having a majority in the Parliament and more than three months after the President Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power, the Government has not been able to solve burning issues in the country,” Karunatilake emphasised.
He said that people were still hopeful over the promises given by the NPP in their election platforms while most of those pledges still remain as broken promises.
“The paddy harvest is scheduled to be harvested by now. But the Government has not yet been able to provide the fertiliser subsidy properly and has not been able to set a guaranteed price for paddy,” he claimed while questioning why the Government has not removed VAT on school equipment yet.
He claimed that when the Government came to power, it gave hopes to the common and middle-class people, Government servants and self-employed people that an environment would be created in the country where they could buy a small vehicle. “Millions of people voted for the NPP to realise this dream but today, the Government has taken away the dreams of those who voted for the NPP. People have now realised that buying a small car under the NPP Government is a distant dream,” he stressed.
While claiming that the NPP, which criticised the Hambantota Port and the Colombo Port City, has now had to accept and implement these same projects, he said the Government has not been able to properly distribute fertiliser subsidies to the farmers and also compensation for cultivations that were damaged due to floods as promised.
Karunatilake said people never thought that a rice shortage would arise under the NPP Government, which pledged that imported rice would be brought into the country, controlled prices would be imposed for rice, and rice would be made available to ease off shortages but the talk about a controlled price had become a joke now.
“Sadly, the Government has not yet been able to identify people’s problems even three months after coming into power,” he claimed.
