Appeal submitted for separate Samurdhi Ministry

Uditha Kumarasinghe

COLOMBO: The All Island Samurdhi Development and Agricultural Research Production Assistants Officers Union yesterday urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to establish a separate Ministry to supervise the activities of the Samurdhi movement, the Government’s key poverty alleviation programme.

At present the subject of Samurdhi comes under the purview of the Nation Building Ministry. The subjects of this Ministry have been vested under five Ministers. In order to alleviate country’s poverty, a separate Ministry should be established by appointing a separate Minister to oversee that subject, Union Secretary S.A.D.Jagath Kumara told a media briefing in Colombo yesterday.

He said the union has sent a letter to the President dated February 5 requesting the setting up of a separate Ministry to safeguard the Samurdhi movement. Responding to our letter, Senior Advisor to President Basil Rajapaksa held a discussion with our union on February 25.

During the discussion, Rajapaksa said the Government had no intention whatsoever to cancel the Samurdhi movement or deprive the livelihood of employees of the Samurdhi movement. He pledged that he would intervene and bring the matter to the President’s attention for the appointment of a separate Minister for the subject of Samurdhi.

The Senior Presidential Advisor also said the Government will successfully take the Samurdhi movement forward along with the Gama Neguma project. “We have placed a lot of confidence in the assurance given to us by Rajapaksa,” he said.

According to Jagath Kumara there are 1039 Samurdhi Banks established throughout the country. At present 1.9 million Samurdhi beneficiary families are dependent on the Samurdhi movement. In addition, over 2.3 million people have become the shareholders of the Samurdhi bank societies. They have invested Rs.2966 million within the Samurdhi banks.

The Samurdhi banks have granted Rs.25,576 million worth of credit facilities to low income families to overcome their socio-economic hardships and commenced various income generating avenues, he said.