MR faction voices displeasure over budgetary delay and development halt

Text and Pictures by P.D. De Silva

The supporters of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Matara, including former ministers Dullas Alahapperuma, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, former Deputy Minister Sanath Jayasuriya, Provincial Minister Weerasumana Weerasighe, provincial councillors and former heads of local government institutions voiced their displeasure over delay in releasing their budgetary allocations and the halt in development work initiated by the former Government. 

They expressed these views at a news conference held in Matara last morning.

Alahapperuma said that most of the development projects which were initiated by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government had come to a standstill. Construction work of the new court complex, the administrative complex at Kotawila and even the new hospital complex - the foundation stone for which was laid by President Maithripala Sirisena as the Minister of Health in the previous Government - have stopped. 

The Chinese contractors awarded the proposed extension of the Southern highway from Matara have closed their site offices as the project has been shelved. He also stated that the people of Matara would take to the streets in protest if the expressway extension project did not get under way soon. He also said that that the MR faction of the SLFP would vote in favour of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution only if the next general election was held under the new system.