JVP non-starter formula to support government

The government had not understood the gravity of COVID-19 and the national implications of the pandemic, JVP MP Vijitha Herath told the media yesterday.

Herath said the government should present a programme on how to tackle the national health crisis and present it to the people. If the government does so, the JVP would support it, he added.

“There is no point in whining that people are not supporting the government, the JVP MP said.

“The laws on disaster management have a framework to deal with an emergency of this nature and the grants, local and foreign to deal with COVID must be recorded and spent transparently”, Herath said.

The MP charged that the government did not want such a mechanism because a number of their associates were making colossal amounts of money from the pandemic.

“If there is a transparent mechanism, their associates can’t fleece the people. When we look at the government response, it’s obvious that they are not doing anything to stop the spread of the virus. There is a lockdown in the country, but most people aren’t adhering to it. The problem is that the government thinks that people must be sacrificed for the economy to run. We think that both the people and the economy can be saved by proper planning,” he said.

(Source: The Island – By Rathindra Kuruwita)