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JVP slams Kerawalapitiya-US deal

13 Sep 2021

  • Alleges Basil pushed for sale without following protocol
BY Buddhika Samaraweera Claiming that 40% of the Kerawalapitiya Power Plant’s pipe system, which is used to bring in gas, as well as its gas storage facilities, are being prepared for sale to a US-based company, based merely on an oral presentation made by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa during a recent cabinet meeting held virtually, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has demanded that the relevant cabinet proposal be withdrawn immediately. Speaking at a media briefing yesterday (13), JVP Leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake charged that this was the first time in Sri Lanka that such a decision had been taken without submitting a cabinet paper as per protocol. “This has been hidden, not only from the people, but also from the Cabinet. If it cannot be presented to the people and for discussion in the Cabinet, then it speaks of irregularities in this process. These attempts of contractors affiliated to the ruling Rajapaksas to sell the Kerawalapitiya Power Plant lands belonging to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and antiquities in the country must be defeated, and we invite everyone to rally for it,” he added. He also said that the Government is selling off national resources even when the country is not in the capacity to hold a dialogue on the Government’s actions, given the Covid-19 pandemic. Dissanayake claimed that at the virtual cabinet meeting, the Finance Minister had simply made an oral presentation on the handover of the aforementioned assets, and the decision was made without a cabinet paper presented in this regard, nor a chance for the ministers to express their views. Speaking further, Dissanayake claimed that Finance Ministry Secretary S.R. Attygalle has been given the authority over all the relevant terms, prices, and agreements to be signed in relation to this matter. He said that the final decision to hand over the aforesaid properties to a US company has been taken in this manner, when the people are facing various hardships due to the current economic crisis caused by the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic. “Earlier, on 31 July 2021, the Ports Minister had submitted a cabinet paper to hand over a valuable 13-acre land of the Colombo Port to a Chinese company named the Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT). Today, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) does not own a large number of the terminals, and most of the revenue comes from shipping services. It had earned a revenue of Rs. 5.6 billion in 2018. “Revenue may have declined somewhat in the last two years, but now the permission to provide these services has been given to a Chinese company for 35 years. For that purpose, an acre has been leased for about Rs. 850,000. One-and-a-half acres have been given to a cement company for a monthly rent of Rs. 2.2 million, but China has been given an acre for just Rs. 850,000. Another 1.25-acre land has been leased for a monthly rent of Rs. 13,500,000,” he also claimed. Attempts to contact Finance Ministry Secretary Attygalle in this regard were unsuccessful.  


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