Samagi Jana Balavegaya leader, Sajith Premadasa, highlighted the government’s failure to adequately provide relief and insisted “the government relief is not reaching people properly since the relief program is through the local government political leadership.”
Premadasa called on the government to implement a mechanism to provide relief to people affected by the military-enforced lockdown, through state officials including village officials, in a statement made yesterday on Hiru News.
Many people in the North-East, who have been promised of an emergency fund of Rs.5,000.00 per family, have not been given those funds and are at the risk of starvation.
Sajith Premadasa called for the suspension of the current mechanism, which is implemented through political representatives and urged for a transparent mechanism to replace it that is to be carried out by state officials.
He pointed out that relief only given by the government to serve their own parties’s interests’ leaves the other affected people in the country suffering the difficulties of the lockdown from a lack of aid.
The current speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, also tweeted about the dangers of the Sri Lanka government politicising relief measures;
“Relief paid to the needy must be welcome. However, it is public money that should not be used for political gain. Some reports of politicization and unfair play in the disbursement must receive the attention of the authorities. This national calamity needs an unbiased response!”
Many people in the North-East, especially villagers, have struggled from the lockdown measures. The police have arrested people who have tried to help other under-privileged people even with curfew permits and also anyone trying to sell goods to make income.
