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| Tuesday, 25 March 2003 |
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by Uditha Kumarasinghe The Government will depoliticise the Samurdhi movement with immediate effect and transform it to a dynamic programme wholly committed to alleviate poverty among low-income groups, Samurdhi Director General Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne told the Daily News yesterday. He said the intention behind this endeavour is to transform the Samurdhi movement as the key poverty alleviation movement in the world. Samurdhi programme was highly politicised during the past few years. This had been a constraint to the progress and advancement of the Samurdhi movement. In order to build the future of the Samurdhi movement, the existing shortcomings should be rectified immediately as a matter of national duty, he said. On the directive of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Samurdhi Ministry has organised awareness programmes to educate politicians, Samurdhi officials and the public on the objectives of the movement at village level. The Ministry has already commenced this process throughout the country and it will be completed within the next three months, he said. Meanwhile Agriculture, Livestock and Samurdhi Minister S.B.Dissanayake and Samurdhi Minister R.A.D.Sirisena will also discuss measures with Samurdhi officials and politicians at divisional level to implement "Samurdhi". "In future politicians will not be allowed to interfere with the functions of the Samurdhi movement for achieving narrow political gains. The Government will deploy 24,000 Samurdhi Development Officers and 2000 Samurdhi Managers as key resource personnel to implement the Samurdhi programme," he said. According to Minister Dissanayake, the depoliticisation is not aimed at removing the PA label and fixing the UNP label on the Samurdhi movement. The sole intention of the Government is to completely remove politics from the Samurdhi programme. In future, poverty will be the sole criterion to gain eligibility for Samurdhi benefits, he said. |
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