Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Saturday, 27 January 2018 01:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Skandha Gunasekara
Likening the Unity Government to a glass mirror, transparent and true in its governing, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday urged voters to prevent the return of a corrupt regime by ensuring the change brought about at the 2015 Presidential election is maintained.
“Our Governing can be compared to a mirror. The people see exactly what we do. We are transparent in all our dealings and activities. We have no hidden agendas unlike the former regime,” Wickremesinghe said, addressing an election rally in Kotte.
It was time for the masses to decide if they wanted to maintain the freedom brought through the 2015 Presidential election, he said.
“This election will decide if the masses want keep and further the change that came about after the 2015 Presidential election that saw freedom of speech and expression established and nepotism abolished, or if they want to go back. This Government functions in a transparent manner. Let us make sure that the former corrupt regime, full of goons and thugs, does not return.”
UNP Electoral organizsr for Kotte and National Policies and Economic Affairs Deputy Minister Dr Harsha De Silva, who also spoke at the rally, said that the Kotte Municipal Council (MC) had gone bankrupt under Former Council Chairman Janaka Ranawaka.
“The Chairman and his Deputy awarded contracts and took bribes, but none of the projects ever took off. Ranawaka had authorised the illegal construction of a number of buildings, and now they cannot be completed as they are not in line with regulations,” said Dr. De Silva.
The Deputy Minister further said that of the 30-odd apartment complexes being built within the jurisdictions of the Kotte Municipality, at least 20 would have to be halted or stopped entirely as they had not been given proper authorisation according to regulations.
“They had attempted to build a 24-storey building down Epitamulla Road in Kotte – a very narrow road. Residents signed a petition and submitted to us and when we investigated we found out that 12 floors was the maximum height of a building allowed down such a narrow road,” Dr De Silva said.
He then went on to say that the UNP would not tolerate corruption among any of its candidates.
“If I find a UNP in the Kotte MC is corrupt, I will not hesitate to show him the door and sack him,” Dr De Silva asserted.
