News

Kiriella calls for suspending development projects and channeling funds to buy vaccines

Published

5 years ago

2021/05/14

By Saman Indrajith

Chief Opposition Whip Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella yesterday called on the government to accelerate procuring Covid-preventing vaccines, and if the latter could not find money it had to channel funds allocated for development projects by suspending them for six months.

Addressing the media, at the Opposition Leader’s office in Colombo MP Kiriella said that the pandemic situation in the country was worsening by the day, and the health experts had issued warnings that Sri Lanka found find itself in the same predicament as India.

“Bodies are floating in the Ganges. The bodies are salvaged and dragged ashore using fishing nets there. We hope and pray that such a calamity may not befall this nation. We are ready to support the government to come out of this crisis and save the country from catastrophe. Yet, the government is not ready to listen. For example, our leader Sajith Premadasa who issued the first warning in Parliament and asked the government to take actions against the pandemic. The government did not listen to him but sough to ridicule us.

“We are telling the government to accelerate the inoculation process. That is the best way out. The government did not take the vaccination process seriously. Instead, it turned to alternatives such as throwing pots into the rivers, drinking herbal concoctions and ritualistic ceremonies such as Bali and Thovil. Even the Speaker in Parliament drank the Dhammika Peniya (syrup) in front of the media and recommended it as the medicine for the coronavirus. We must learn from such mistakes. We must expedite the procurement of vaccines. The government purchased only 500,000 doses. It received a donation of 900,000 vaccines. We have 22 million people. Suppose we use only the vaccines that require double doses, then we need 44 million vaccines. We still have only 1.3 million. The government should make purchases now. If it does not have funds, it should suspend the development projects for six months and use the funds so saved to buy vaccines. We know that the government has no funds. The same happened for the fertiliser relief. The government did not have funds to make purchases so it could not give the fertilisers to farmers and their solution was to ban chemical fertilisers and promote alternatives.

“We call on the government to permit the private sector to import vaccines under a regulated mechanism without letting the importers earn unreasonable profits capitalizing on the misery of people.

“At a discussion the President had with a group of villagers, he was requested to provide a PCR machine to their hospital. The president then said that the PCRs would not be needed as the vaccination had started and all people would be vaccinated. Now, three months have lapsed, and the people are without either a PCR machine or the vaccine. People in the Kandy District have not got the vaccine yet. There is only a single PCR for the entire Central Province – that is the one at the Kandy Hospital. We do not know what has been done with the funds allocated for the health sector procurement. We repeat that vaccination is the only solution.

“There was a presidential task force to formulate a strategy to tackle the pandemic. Its chief went overseas two days ago. Are these the examples set by the rulers to people? Now, it is said that he went abroad for treatment. What about the doctors in this country? What’s wrong with them? When Lalith Athulathmudali was wounded severely by a bomb attack the then government offered to take him to the US and made arrangements to treat him there. Yet, Lalith rejected that offer and said that he trusted Lankan doctors.”

Matale SJB MP Rohini Kaviratne also addressed the press.

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News

Cabinet approves construction of new 300 bed Base Hospital in Deniyaya

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/18

Priyan

The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution forwarded by the Minister of Health and Mass Media to relocate the Deniyaya Base Hospital after constructing a new hospital with a capacity of 300 beds at an estimated cost of Rupees 6,000 million.

The Southern Provincial Department of Health has acquired a plot of land in Handford estate which is approximately 03 kilometres away from the town for this purpose.

News

Cabinet nod to legally empower methodology for implementing the ‘Praja Shakthi’ poverty alleviation national movement

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/18

Priyan

The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the resolution furnished by the Minister of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft a bill to legally empower the implementation of ‘Praja Shakthi’ (Strength of the Community) poverty alleviation national movement

News

NPP not under Indian pressure to hold PC polls – JVP

Published

6 hours ago

2026/02/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

Tilvin Silva

…preliminary work started on new Constitution

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva yesterday (17) maintained that the NPP government was not under Indian pressure to hold the long delayed Provincial Council elections.

The top JVP official said so appearing on Sirasa Pathikada, anchored by Asoka Dias. Tilvin Silva said that neither the devolution nor terrorism issues had been discussed during his meeting with External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor, in New Delhi. This was Tilvin Silva’s first visit to India.

Declaring that politics hadn’t been on the agenda, the JVPer said that the Indian focus was entirely on economic development and technology.

The JVP General Secretary visited India under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ (ICCR) Distinguished Visitors Programme from 5-12 February 2026. General Secretary Silva was accompanied by Kitnan Selvaraj, MP, Ilankumaran Karunanathan, MP, JVP Central Committee Member Janaka Adhikari, JVP’s Media Unit Head Hemathilaka Gamage and Member of JVP’s International Relations Department Kalpana Madhubhashini. The delegation visited New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Thiruvananthapuram.

Responding to another query, Tilvin Silva said that Dr. S. Jaishankar had reiterated that India would always remain a true and trusted partner for Sri Lanka, in accordance with its ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ and Vision ‘MAHASAGAR.’

Referring to the second JVP insurrection in the late 1980s, the JVPer claimed that they had not been against India but responded to the actions of the then Indian government.

Sri Lanka enacted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in the wake of the Indo-Lanka peace accord of July 1987 to pave the way for Provincial Councils.

Tilvin Silva said that since they came to power, Indo-Sri Lanka relations had changed. “India has realised we could work together,” he said.

The JVP official said that preliminary work was underway, regarding the formulation of a new Constitution. The abolition of executive presidency and creation of an Office of President sans executive powers, too, would be addressed, he said, adding that the strengthening of the legislature was the other issue at hand.

Pointing out that the NPP had 2/3 majority in Parliament and could introduce a new Constitution on their own, Tilvin Silva said that they intended to obtain views of all and study the past processes in a bid to secure consensus. The JVP, as the party that campaigned against the introduction of executive presidency, way back in 1978, would lead the current effort to do away with the existing Constitution, he said.

Tilvin promised that they would implement what was in their manifesto.

The interviewer also raised the issue of abolishing the pensions for ex-Presidents. Tilvin Silva said that the Supreme Court, too, had approved the move to abolish pensions to ex-MPs. Therefore there was no issue with that, however, the ex-Presidents pensions couldn’t be done away with as they were made through the Constitution. That would be addressed when the government introduced a new Constitution in consultation with other stakeholders.

By Shamindra Ferdinando