JVP calls for debate on disaster

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had requested for an immediate Parliamentary debate on the current floods and landslide disaster, party sources said today.

Sources said the party leader and Chief Opposition Whip had already written to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya requesting for a debate.

Meanwhile, JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake told a news briefing yesterday that the plantations along the central hills had been the cause of the recent disaster.

“Development was carried out in this country by safeguarding the central hills for more than 2,000 years. However, this tradition changed after 1815 with the beginning of cultivation in the area,” Mr. Ratnayake said.

He said the leaders, who ruled this country after the colonial period continued the ways of the British, even after the country gaining Independence.

The JVP said mismanagement of the disaster would result in a delay in full restoration of people’s lives.

JVP MP Sunil Handunetti said the management of disaster hit areas had not improved even after the increase of relief workers in the Kalutara, Ratnapura and Matara Districts.

It was highlighted that it would take a considerable time for the low-grown tea industry to pick up.

Mr. Handunetti said the tea plantations had been destroyed by the floods.

He said his party had serious questions to raise on flood relief and would raise those in Parliament this week. (Yohan Perera)