For low income earners:

Massive housing project on way

Total housing units number 600,000:

Chaminda PERERA

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said the Government will implement a massive 600,000 unit housing project this year to fulfil the housing need of the low income earners in the country.

The President stressed the Government could not launch a mass scale condominium project during the past four years due to the war on terrorism and reiterated that this project will solve the housing problem of the people.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa was speaking at a meeting with the students who are receiving vocational training from the institutes coming under the Ministry of Vocational Education and Training at Temple Trees yesterday.

President Mahinda Rajapsksa stressed the country should have skilled workers in the construction field for this project too.

“The Government requires skilled workers to make this project a success”. He said the Vocational Training Authority was established by him as the then Minister of Vocational Education and Training under the People’s Alliance Government and the demand for skilled workers in foreign countries are on the increase.

He said the Government has a proper understanding over the enormous potential in the youth and they are being given vocational training to exploit the demand for skilled workers in the overseas employment market.

The President stressed that the war is over and the Government has crushed the LTTE terrorists successfully.

He said the Government has faced the massive task of bringing economic development to the country.

Infrastructure development plays a pivotal role in the economical development of a country and the Government is in the process of providing infrastructure facilities to the rural areas to thrive people to people contact within and outside the country.

He said the country is hinging on correct and well planned economic vision and we do everything possible to ensure well developed country for our younger generation.

He reminisced his experiences in politics as a student and a teenager in the mid 40s and 50s and stressed that the descendants from Rajapaksas have never engaged in politics with hatred nor malice.

President Rajapaksa stressed that he is free from corruption and fraud. The President added that he had not faced any allegation of corruption or fraud in his entire political career.

The President added that the family members of the Rajapaksas have earned nothing from politics but the people’s confidence and trust.

He stressed that the opposition is engaged in a dirty trick of slinging mud at him and his brothers as they have nothing to say. “They are involved in a malicious campaign of hatred against me and my brothers to cover up their inefficiency,” he said.

He added that he ascended to the top rung of the country with much obstacles. “I faced baton charges from the police and languished in jail during my political career spanning over 40 years” , he said.

The President said he was instrumental in organizing a series of protest campaigns and walks such as Jana Gosha and Paada Yatha during the time he was in opposition.

Vocational Education and Training Minister Piyasena Gamage and National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa also spoke on this occasion.