Govt. has a mania for helicopters: Karu

8 August 2012 08:16 am

Senior UNPer Karu Jayasuriya said today the government had developed a helicopter mania and were blatantly abusing state resources for their election campaign as never before.

“They are using helicopters unnecessarily even to travel a short distance, such as attending a school sports meet,” he told a news conference in Colombo this morning.

Mr. Jayasuriya revealed that the government was going to buy another 14 helicopters on a foreign loan. "This exercise was a waste of public resources at a time the war was over. Is it necessary to buy a great number of helicopters after the war? The people are not prepared to believe that the government is buying these helicopters for tourism purposes,” he said.

Mr. Jayasuriya said in the absence of the 17th amendment. "We are not guaranteed a free and fair election. An independent police commission was vital to ensure a free and fair election. Under this government it is not the election commissioner who decides the election date but the astrologers,” he added.

Mr. Jayasuriya said the government wanted to hold these elections to establish their power not for the wellbeing of the people. “Education and agriculture have deteriorated. Despite these burning problems, the government wanted these unnecessary elections even though the provincial councils had several months to complete their tenure," he said. (Ajith Siriwardana)