Govt. introduced policy of sharing the budget with the people: Basil

Thursday, 13 March 2014 00:28 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

It is the present Government that introduced in 2010 the tradition of sharing the country’s income with the people, according to Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa. He made this observation when he addressed meetings at the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Playground and Wills Park, Badulla on Tuesday 11 March to brief the public on the National Budget 2014 for the Rata Neguma National Development under the theme, “Sustainable Develo-pment through Public Participation”.

The Minister said that the blessings of all religious leaders will be sought for this program to be implemented in the course of the current year with the participation of the entire state machinery, including people’s representatives and community leaders. A record number of nearly 7,000 people attended each of these meetings – the highest recorded in the two districts in recent years. Minister Rajapaksa also handed over the Economic Development Mini-stry’s allocation of Rs. 1,580 million for development work in the Nuwara Eliya District during 2014. The Minister added that since 2010 the President had taken steps to consult all segments of society - trade unions, agricultural organisations, chambers of commerce and private sector companies in preparing the national budget. The Minister recalled that 160 briefings were held in 160 electorates to discuss the best ways of utilising the monies allocated for development work in 25 districts. He focused attention on five main areas – (1) identifying and giving priority to rural needs (2) planning them effectively (3) preparing estimates (4) giving beneficiaries to participate in the work and (5) monitoring and maintenance. The objective is to raise the raise the living standards of villagers who comprise 65% of the population, in accordance with the Mahinda Chinthana Vision. A very large share of the budget has been set apart for rural and provincial development. It will activate the house-to-house and village-to-village national development programme under which come Gama Neguma, One-Task for-One-Village, improving sanitary facilities in rural schools, raising living standards, re-cultivating fallow paddy lands and repairing small irrigation canals, building weekly fairs, maternity clinics and bus halts. He expressed confidence that the strength and blessings of the people would help the Government to defeat anti-national conspiracies backed by foreign elements. Nuwara Eliya District Secretary G.G. Kumarasiri and Badulla Distract Secretary Rohana Dissanayake delivered the welcome addresses. Others present included Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MPs, people’s representatives and government officials representing the two districts.