UPFA promises to form independent commissions

By Chamodi Gunawardana

The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) yesterday said that if it claimed victory at the General Elections it would form independent commissions to further investigate the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda and the murder of the Sunday Leader’s founder Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Addressing a media briefing, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader and former provincial councillor Udaya Gammanpila claimed that the United National Party (UNP) Government did not pay attention to those two incidents during its six months in power. 

“Wickrematunge was killed by somebody and Eknaligoda has been missing for almost five years. During the last few years the UNP was standing alongside Eknaligoda’s wife and trying to sling mud at the UPFA. However, now the UNP has left Eknaligoda’s family and it did not take any step to find real culprits. Somehow we believe that those culprits are in the UNP Government,” he charged.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena alleged that the UNP Government did not offer the concessions they promised in their 100-day plan.

“The so-called Yahapalana Government promised to give a guaranteed purchase prices for rice, potatoes, tea leaves and rubber. They said that they would give a Rs. 50 guaranteed purchase price for a kilogramme of rice, Rs. 80 for a kilogramme of potatoes, between Rs. 80 and Rs. 90 for a kilogramme of tea leaves and Rs. 380 for a kilogramme of rubber. However, these were not implemented,” Abeywardena claimed.

The Minister added that if the Government was unable to deliver on its promised concessions then there was no point in appointing a Finance Minister or any other state ministers. 

“Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that they could not reduce the price of tea leaves because of the world economic crisis. How can they ignore their promised responsibilities in this way? However, we are glad to say that we successfully managed all economic crises during the Rajapaksa administration,” Abeywardena asserted. 

Attacking Wickremesinghe further, the Minister pointed out that the Premier had been repeating the same set of promises at election meetings that he had been making during the last several years. 

“Wickremesinghe is continually saying that they will provide 1,000,000 job opportunities for the youth of this country. He has repeated it all over again. However, he still does not have any proper plan to provide these jobs,” Abeywardena said.