Victorious march of the Divi Neguma Bill

By Dharman Wickremaratne

The entire country’s attention has been drawn to the Divi Neguma Bill after it was passed in Parliament on Tuesday with a majority of 117 votes under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s direction, despite much controversy and opposition over the bill during the past several months. In this context it is worthwhile to examine the events from the start.

The Divi Neguma Bill’s main objective is to establish the Divi Neguma Department combining the Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority, Sri Lanka Southern Development Authority and the Sri Lanka Upcountry Development Authority. This will help to take the Samurdhi Campaign ten thousand steps further by establishing the Divi Neguma Bank which will allow the people to take over the campaign through rural community organisations.  

Among the goals of the Bill are setting up community-oriented financial organisations, providing people with microfinance facilities, ensuring food security, establishing a social security network, storage facilities for various products, processing, packaging and sales, increasing job opportunities for Divi Neguma beneficiaries, encouraging people to adopt a environment-friendly lifestyle, encouraging them to save part of their earnings, increasing investment opportunities, strengthening their self-confidence, stressing the importance of collective social responsibility and ethical and moral standards.

One of the first steps in this direction was the establishment of a commission to probe issues relating to the pensions and other matters of Samurdhi Officers and Managers as proposed in the Divi Neguma Bill in accordance with the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ of 2005. The Bill will bring relief to around five million people. Steps taken to raise the economic level of Samurdhi families by improving their sources of livelihood and making Samurdhi employees permanent government employees with pension rights was the basis of the Divi Neguma Bill.

Accordingly the Divi Neguma National Movement was launched on March 12, 2011 to create one million household economic units. The movement covered 14,008 grama seva divisions under the theme ‘A Prosperous Home and a Prosperous Country’.

The Divi Neguma proposal was presented to the Cabinet on 17 August 2011 after which the movement’s second stage commenced island-wide on 27 October 2011. Under the second stage seeds, vegetables, fruits, minor export crops and other plants were distributed among Samurdhi beneficiaries. The third stage began on 5 April 2012 as a long-term development oriented project aimed at transforming the country from a developing nation into a developed one.

Following the Cabinet approval given to the Divi Neguma Department proposal on 25 July 2012 the proposal was gazetted on July 30 the same year. Thereafter Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa submitted the Divi Neguma Bill to Parliament on 8 August 2012. On 16 August, the one Association petitioned the Supreme Court calling for the approval of the Bill by Provincial Councils since some of the subjects in the Bill were the responsibility of PCs. These include sections of small and medium scale industries, agriculture, roads and irrigation. The petition also stated that certain regulations in the Bill were a violation of the Constitution. On 18 August, the Speaker announced in Parliament that the petitioners had ignored People’s Sovereignty as stated in the Constitution by giving a copy of the petition to a Parliamentary official instead of the Speaker.

Since the judiciary ruled that provincial councils’ approval should be obtained for the establishment of a department combining areas coming under the purview of PCs, the Western Provincial council on September 25, 2012 approved the Bill by a majority of 40 votes, the Wayamba PC approved it on September 26 by a majority 36 votes, the Uva PC by a majority of 17 on 27 September. The Eastern PC by a majority of six votes with SLMC support on 2 October and on the same day the North Central PC approved it by a majority of 19 votes.

On 9 October, the Divi Neguma Bill was submitted to Parliament for the second time immediately after the Speaker announced that provincial governors had informed the President that all PCs had approved the Bill.

Divi Neguma fourth stage commenced on 24 October after the Maha Sangha of the Three Nikayas gave their blessings to the Divi Neguma National Programme.

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Bill was conveyed to the President and the Speaker on 31 October 2012. It was last 6 November that the Speaker informed Parliament that according to the SC’s ruling 16 sections of the Bill were not in accordance with the Constitution.

The Divi Neguma Bill was passed in Parliament with a majority of 117 votes, paving the way for bringing relief to nearly five million people, raising the economic level of 1.8 million Samurdhi beneficiaries and ensuring pension rights for 27,000 persons in Government service.