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| Wednesday, 24 March 2004 |
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by Victor Marambage, Talawa group correspondent The Regaining Sri Lanka programme of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is a bait to draw poor farmers from rural areas to towns to join the jobless. Rural farmers will become a heap of dirt in the process, said Saranapala Silva Secretary Eksath Dheewara Saha Dheewara Kamkaru Samithiya at a conference on fisheries and fish workers held at the Centre for Society and Religion, Maradana. "Foreign investors get the chance of fleecing the rural workers by this programme by way of cheap labour. Sand is being removed from the Uswetakeyyawa sea shore to construct the new Katunayake-Colombo super highway. Sand from Kelaniganga fills the pits, and shoreline from Puttalam to Panadura in experiencing heavy erosion. Small scale fishermen today are suffering. The Ceylon Glass Company is now closed. The Indian Glass Company produces bottles in which all our insecticides and pesticides are bottled. We are at the mercy of that company as it can bottle anything that destroys and cultivations. All local industries are closing one by one. Incentives and subsidies to foreign investors have brought down prices of one product. Unemployment is rising. Voluntary Retirement Schemes and compensation packages are used to retrench workers. With the view to allow farmers to sell their land, deeds are issued to them in disguise. Prices of fertilizer, seeds and other agricultural needs have sky-rocketed. Foreigners are allowed to purchase highspeed trawlers letting the small scale fisherman perish. The Regaining Sri Lanka programme should be defeated for these reasons, Silva said. Rev. Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, Chairperson CSR presided. |
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