News
‘People left with two choices — either to die or collectively urge the govt. to fight Covid-19’ says FLSP
by Saman Indrajith
The fast spreading Covid-19 virus and the increase in the number of deaths have left people with two choices — either to die or to organize to collectively urge the government to get its act together to fight the pandemic, says the Frontline Socialist Party (FLSP).
Education Secretary of the FLSP, Pubudu Jagoda addressing a media conference on Thursday at its headquarters in Battaramulla said: COVID-19 pandemic showed us where we are as a society. Social injustice is amply displayed. The police would nab a person who goes to a boutique to buy a kilo of rice to feed his children for the offence of violating quarantine curfew while doing nothing against the rich and powerful company owners who blatantly violated the regulations. These company owners ordered their employees who showed symptoms of fever to take paracetamol and continue to work to ensure their profits over the lives of the workers.
These laws are not applicable to hotel owners who let their employees go home without quarantine after knowing that there was a customer infected with COVID-19. Whenever these are questioned, the government authorities have a ready-made answer – that “they are conducting investigations”. There are many thousands of families without food because of the curfew, he claimed.
The government should provide relief not only to those living in the areas where curfew was declared, but also thousands of daily wage earners who have no means to support their families because they have no work. The self-employed, businessmen, small and medium scale industrialists need several months to settle their dues on lease commitements. The government should grant relief to them, he added.
“How is the government behaving in the face of crisis? It could have contained the virus spreading from Minuwangoda if it had acted swiftly when the first infected case was detected. But it succumbed to the pressure from the company owners and did not shut down the area. When there were reports of infected cases in a single factory, the government did not close the free trade zone. As a result, it spread to many other workers, Jagoda asserted.
The government would not look at the issue from a workers’ perspective. This situation cannot be permanently solved without change of the system. But at least now, the government should expand the public health service by providing it with necessary facilities. We have before us the Appropriation Bill 2021 that was gazetted recently. Its allocation for the health ministry is only Rs. 158 billion. In 2019 the allocation was Rs 178 billion. Even in the face of a pandemic, Rs. 20 billion had been reduced from the health ministry allocation, he further said.
“There is no meaning of waiting with the thought the rulers will save our lives. We must unite to urge the government to take action to ensure our safety, while maintaining health guidelines to the maximum. People have to choose the path of struggle to get a bigger allocation for public healthcare and social welfare. But they should keep in mind that these are only short term strategies. Without changing the entire system which nurtures only the capitalist rich, there would be no permanent solution,” Jagoda said.
By AJA Abeynayake
The Attorney General informed the Supreme Court on Thursday (27) that Rs. 245 million from the funds obtained from the respondents, as per the verdict delivered on 12 January 2023 by a seven-judge bench led by the Chief Justice, had been paid as compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks. The case stemmed from fundamental rights petitions filed against the respondents’ failure to prevent the coordinated attacks. To monitor the disbursement of these funds, 13 related fundamental rights petitions were taken up on Thursday before a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, Justices S. Thurairaja, and A.H.M.D. Nawaz. Representing the Attorney General, Additional Solicitor General Viveka Siriwardena informed the court that Rs. 311 million had been allocated for compensation, of which Rs. 245 million had already been distributed among 412 individuals, including the families of 215 deceased victims.
She further stated that Rs. 65 million from the allocated funds was expected to be used for victims’ medical treatment and for the care of affected elderly individuals.
President’s Counsel Shamil Perera and Sanjeeva Jayawardena, appearing on behalf of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, respectively, told the court that they had not yet received detailed reports on the compensation payments.
Chief Justice Fernando asked the Additional Solicitor General why those reports had not been provided to the relevant parties. The Additional Solicitor General responded that the proceedings were focused on monitoring the disbursement of compensation to victims.
The Chief Justice, however, noted that withholding those reports from the petitioners did not align with the objectives of the case. She ordered that the reports be immediately provided to the Cardinal and the other petitioners.The court scheduled the next hearing of the petitions for 21 May.
…. Gnanakka also received Rs. 28 mn
Chief Government Whip Minister Nalinda Jayathissa said on Thursday that the Ranil Wickremesinghe government had spent an additional Rs. 1,125 million as compensation for individuals whose houses were destroyed in 2022.
That was in addition to the Rs. 1,221 million paid to politicians as compensation, Minister Jayatissa said, revealing that an astrologer called Gnanakka from Anuradhapura had received Rs. 28 million in compensation for her Devalaya destroyed by mobs in 2022. (SI)
By Saman Indrajith
During yesterday’s parliamentary session, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya disclosed the expenditure incurred by the state on foreign trips undertaken by Sri Lanka’s Presidents.
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s foreign trips between 2010 and 2014 cost Rs 3,572 million. His successor, Maithripala Sirisena spent Rs 384 million on overseas travel from 2015 to 2019. Gotabaya Rajapaksa spent Rs. 126 million from 2019 to 2022, while President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s foreign travel between 2023 and 2024 cost the state Rs 533 million.
In contrast, the current president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, had spent only Rs 1.8 million on foreign travel since assuming office in September 2024, the PM said.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the most expensive year for presidential foreign travel during that period was 2013, when Mahinda Rajapaksa’s trips alone amounted to an unprecedented Rs 1,144 million.
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