UNP, JVP will record worst defeat

Chaminda PERERA

Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Minister Maithreepala Sirisena yesterday said the UNP and JVP will record the worst defeat in their history at the upcoming General Election.

He said the UNP’s election campaign has degenerated to such a low level that not a single poster is visible in villages.

The Minister added he found it difficult to allocate time to receive thousands of strong UNPers who crossed over to the UPFA during the past few days in his area.

Addressing a press briefing at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday, the Minister said the senior UNP members who joined the UPFA during the past few days have expressed their disgust over the party leadership.

He said the UPFA will become the first party which records a landmark victory at the forthcoming General Election.

Minister Sirisena said the UNP Leader who attempted to fill paddy fields in the Western Province has suddenly felt a sympathy for the farmers.

“UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe during his tenure as the Prime Minister suspended the fertilizer subsidy and foods were imported to the country to discourage the farming community.

The farmers had to abandon their cultivation for want of Government’s assistance. Not a single irrigation scheme was rehabilitated and the plea by the senior UNPers to start a mega scale irrigation project was rejected by Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister,” he added.

He emphasized that the UNP Leader has neither participated in ploughing nor even touched a plough in a paddy field.

The UNP deviated from the policy of DS and Dudley Senanayakes who rendered an immense service for the uplift of agriculture sector in the country.

Ranil who is talking of farmers and agriculture today, headed a Government that closed down the Paddy Marketing Board, the Minister said.

The Government under the able leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa granted a bag of fertilizer weighing 50KG at Rs 350 and the Paddy Marketing Board was reestablished for the farmers benefit.

This Government ended the era in which the farmers committed suicide due to their inability to repay agriculture loans, he said.