‘Terrorism will be wiped out from country this year’

This is a decisive year for the country in which our war heroes will achieve success in their operations to defeat terrorism and safeguard the unity and territorial integrity of the country said Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama.

He was addressing a meeting at the Galagedara Agrarian Service Office to mark the distribution of plants and agricultural equipment for home garden cultivation.

Dr. Amunugama said the Cabinet recently decided to abrogate the CFA because both parties to the agreement had not accepted it. It was mostly vialated by the LTTE.

The Government was waging war on two fronts namely to preserve the unity and territorial integrity of the country and to ensure a better life for the people through an accelerated economic development effort. In this struggle we as a nation had to face many challenges.

Dr. Amunugama said one such challenge was the escalation of the crude oil price in the international market. The price of a barrel which was 85 US Dollars when the Government computed the budget proposals had now shot up to 100 US Dollars. On the other hand prices of all imported essential items had also increased.

The demand for flour, sugar, dhall and dried fish had increased in countries in this region including India and China. Demand for these goods increased when any country was progressing in the development sector.

In the past, countries like India and China faced famines but we had never faced such a calamity.

However India and China had surpassed us in the share of development today and that was why they have a bigger demand for these food items.

So, the exporters of those items increased the price of these goods as they were not concerned whether Sri Lanka brought them or not.

Dr. Amunugama said today we produced only 25 per cent of our sugar requirement. When the government planned to set up a sugar factory in Sevanagala to increase local production to 50 per cent of the demand certain leftists objected to it saying the farmers could lose their traditional paddy fields.

But the truth was that areas such as Uva Wellassa could not be developed without commercial and industrial ventures.

As much as Europeans did not develop Uva Wellassa during the colonial era certain Left parties also did not want this area to be developed for political reasons because when the people remained in abject poverty they could garner votes during elections. The Government wanted to develop these areas because it had no selfish motives of winning elections only.

The government distributed plants, seeds, agricultural implements and other inputs and milk cows among people in the rural sector because it would help increase local production.

There are 1117 acres of paddy land in the Galagedara Divisional Secretariat division of which 280 acres remained fallow. Now more lands are being cultivated due to the high prices obtained for paddy and rice.

Dr. Amunugama said prices of goods also increased when worker salaries were increased. Although certain people requested the government to increase salaries and reduce prices of goods, the government could not do both at the same time.

The country’s problems could not be solved by resorting to demonstrations and protest campaigns.

Only intelligent decisions would help resolve country’s problems.

We should also create a good market for locally purchased food items such as green gram as a substitute for imported dhal.

Central Provincial Councillor Dilum Amunugama also spoke.