AKD following in RW’s footsteps gives into IMF: Sajith

By Yohan Perera and Santha Chandrasiri   

Highlighting that there will be an electricity tariff hike after the Local Government election, Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is merely following his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe rather than delivering promises he had made during the past elections.   
“President Dissanayake had given into the IMF just like the former President and had agreed to increase the electricity tariff. “We have heard from reliable sources that the power tariff will be increased on the 6th of this month,” Mr. Premadasa said speaking during a Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) May Day rally in Thalawakele.   
“The President and his government promised to reduce the  power tariff by one third but now it has decided to increase it instead. The present government is also robbing people’s EPF and ETF in the guise of a debt restructuring exercise,” he added.   
He said the present government has brought fertilizer subsidy to a standstill. “People could provide a good answer to the government and vote for us at the Local Government election,” he said.   
“The Government has also failed to arrest the spate of killings that is continuing almost daily. People are being killed along the roadside, at workplaces and inside court house. People are being killed before the very eyes of judges,” he added.   
Some of the SJB seniors including Chairman Imthiaz Bakeer Markar, and SJB allies Rauff Hakeem, Mano Ganesan and MP Kabir Hashim and few others were notable absentees at the rally. Another significant factor was that party General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara was not given a speech.