Samurdhi not a beggars' movement - Deputy Minister

Sigiriya group correspondent

Sri Lanka, a member State of the United Nations committed itself to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Samurdhi is focused on eradicating poverty and hunger which has become as atrocious as terrorism.

But such a movement should not be degraded to the level of begging, said the Deputy Minister of Samurdhi and Poverty Alleviation Rohana Dissanayake.

Whatever the name may be whether it is Samurdhi or Janasaviya we have to look into the objectives that are expected to be achieved.

Poverty in the rural areas (31.3 per cent of people) is more than three times than in the urban areas. This manifests that about 80% of our population are victims of poverty. So calling Samurdhi a beggars' movement is very bad but the Member of Parliament for Hambantota Sajith Premadasa says said the Deputy Minister.

Speaking further the Deputy Minister Rohana Dissanayake said the present Samurdhi Movement is vastly differed from that of Sajith Premadasa's time when millions of rupees belonging to the poor of the country had been misused.

Without proper survey financial allocations were given to affluent people while the needy suffered. Even the roofing sheets that were to be distributed among the poor people were robbed and sold to outsiders.