Daya Gamage denies deductions from Samurdhi recipients

• Declines to tell P’ment how money for publicity was raised

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Minister Daya Gamage yesterday denied using Government money to organise ceremonies where fresh recipients were included into the Samurdhi program. 

Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Minister  Daya Gamage

Responding to Opposition allegations of deducting Rs.500 from each Samurdhi family and manufacturing the t-shirts via apparel companies owned by him, the Minister said: “I have not given instructions to deduct Rs. 500 from Samurdhi beneficiary families. I have not used Treasury money for this program and none of the t-shirts were manufactured in any of the nine garment factories owned by Daya Apparel. So, I don’t think it is necessary to tell Parliament how this money was raised.”

Reading a Ministerial notice in Parliament, Minister Gamage also held that Samurdhi Banks were highly corrupt, and it took time to obtain past information on death benefit payments. “All death benefit payment applications received before the deadlines were honoured. Samurdhi Banks are nothing but loss-making establishments that lack proper management systems,” he charged.

According to the Minister, he has added more Samurdhi recipients based on their eligibility. “We were able to provide 600,000 more people Samurdhi benefits during a short period. These were the people who were victimised due to political reasons during the previous Government,” he added.

Promising Parliament that Samurdhi will be directed towards increasing the exports, the Minister claimed to have plans to introduce income generation programs for each family. 

However, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP Anura Dissanayake rejected the Minster’s claim of not using public money or deducting the cost from the Samurdhi beneficiaries.