UNP failed to serve Warakapola - Athauda Seneviratne

WARAKAPOLA:The UNP should not be re-elected to power at the forthcoming Warakapola Pradesheeya Sabha elections as it had failed to implement a single development project in the Warakapola area during its four year tenure, Labour Relations and Foreign Employment Minister Athauda Seneviratne said.

The Minister was addressing a meeting held at the Warakapola Divisional Secretariat to mark the distribution of Samurdhi relief amounting to Rs. 5.4 million and 12,000 families in the Dedigama Electorate recently.

Minister Seneviratne said the total Samurdhi assistance received by the electorate earlier amounted to only Rs. 3.9 million. The Samurdhi allocation has now been increased to Rs. 5.4 million following the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

He said the Samurdhi Movement was started to alleviate poverty. People will never forget the manner in which UNP stalwarts ridiculed this movement and threatened to skin Samurdhi animators alive during the last election campaign if they came into power.

The Minister said 22 selected families in Warakapola have been provided with decent houses through the Samurdhi Movement so far while the insurance payment made in the event of deaths and births have also been enhanced.

He said the President had extended paternal love to the entire child population through his policy of providing a free meal to needy schoolchildren and a nutrition allowance to new-born till they are five years of age.

The Minister said he hoped to solve the electricity problem in Dedigama and re-open the Thulhiriya Textile Mills this year.

Plans are also afoot to solve other people's burning problems in Dedigama during the next two years. Provincial Council Member Udayakantha Gunatilleke was also present.