Opposition United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday urged the government to use the millions or billions recovered from former LTTE arms procurer Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP to provide relief to people including soldiers and displaced civilians.
Mr. Wickremesinghe told parliament that these assets could also be used to increase the salaries of public servants.“We like to know what happened to the 18 ships that belonged to KP. What happened to the 500 petrol sheds he owned?” he asked.
Mr. Wickremesinghe asked why the government was unable to give the houses in Ipalogama housing scheme free-of-charge to soldiers.
He said Sri Lanka faced its worst economic crises during the administration of President R. Premadasa in 1991.
“At the time there was a war in the country. Prices had risen because of the Kuwait war. We lost remittances from our expatriate workers and there was a drastic drop in tourist arrivals,” he said.
Mr. Wickremesinghe said even amid such difficulties the then government was able to continue the welfare programmes such as ‘Janasaviya’.
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