He said, when the UNP pointed out , earlier, that rice price was shooting up beyond Rs. 80.00 per kilo when the price of paddy was as low as Rs. 16.00 , and to bring about a price control ,the Govt. ignored the pleas ; and allowed its Minister and his brothers, owners of the biggest Rice Mills in Polonnaruwa to continue to operate a rice Mafia manipulating and monopolizing the rice market which allegedly was the cause of the steep price hikes about which a hue and cry was raised by the UNP , Media and Opposition .
But, now when the Elections at Eastern province is round the corner , the Govt. and its Minister Bandula Gunawardena are introducing a rice price control as an election ‘gundu’ to deceive the people by cheap publicity and tricks ,for which the Rajapakse Govt. and his Minister have shown great skills since their advent to power. Indeed, the Minister of consumer affair is best known among the consumers, only if he is described as Minister of consumer despair and the Mahinda Chintana as Mahinda Karadara. Minister’s deceitful intentions are very clear because the Govt. which refused to price control when the paddy was Rs. 16.00 and Rice price was Rs. 80.00 per kilo , now , desperately , feels fit to introduce a muddled up price control when the paddy price is Rs. 35.00 and Rice price is Rs. 80.00 , he asserted. The so called people’s Govt. did not even care about giving relief to the people during the Sinhala New Year when the rice price shot up to over Rs. 100.00 along with all other essential commodities making it the blackest Sinhala New Year ever in Sri Lanka’s history attributed to the ‘Sathakaye Saapaye’ or the ‘curse of the shawl’.
Only profuse lies and its endless false media reports which are sustaining this Govt. and the bloated Cabinet: when the Govt. cannot keep the rice price down, it blames on an imaginary world rice shortage. When Milk foods go up in price, they try to falsely explain it by pointing to Australia‘s shortage, the supplier of milk foods. Practically, every price hike due to Govt. bungling is justified on false excuses, he said. He recounted how during the UNP regime ,Late Lalith Athulathmudali who was the relevant Minister did not allow the people to suffer on milk food shortage or by price hikes even when the milk food factory was burnt down !
Adverting to the forthcoming Eastern province elections, Karunatileke said, all what the UNP is asking of the Govt. is a democratic fair and free election. Let everybody be given protection and security, not to the Pillayan group alone. What the UNP is urging is to give the same security to all candidates legally and democratically without allowing Pillayan to carry arms. Which is against the laws of the land? The UNP is not against security to Pillayan, it is only against the Govt. not providing security to all equally, particularly because the Pillayans are involved allegedly in intimidation and violence.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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