Fuel prices should not be revised monthly as a monthly revision would cause issues in almost all sectors of the country, SLFP National Youth Front (NYF) Chairman MP Shantha Bandara said.
He said that fuel prices could be revised once in six months, in accordance with world fuel price fluctuations.
Bandara was speaking at a media conference of the SLFP Youth Front yesterday at the party headquarters.
“Fuel price changes affect all sectors of the country, especially in the field of transport. Therefore fuel prices should remain constant at least for a period of six months,” Bandara said.
As a result of being in the Unity Government with the United National Party, the SLFP received poor results at the last Local Government Elections, he said.
“The SLFP couldn’t obtain good results at the LG Elections because of the Unity Government in which we were a member. The voter base reduced to 1.7 million at the last LG poll,” Bandara said.
With the exit from Unity Government, the SLFP will receive a better result at the forthcoming elections. A broad alliance will be formed to win the forthcoming elections, he said.
He accused the government of inaction to solve the burning issues of the farming community.
“Whatever the politicians said, no corn farmer is receiving compensation for the damage caused by ‘Sena’. Without solving issues such as the ‘Sena ‘ outbreak, the government is talking of a new Constitution,” he said.
He added that there is no proper compensation process for farmers. Ultimately, farmers will have to wait for years wasting time in the divisional secretariat and Agrarian Services Department offices to receive compensation.
Commenting on Minister Lakshman Kiriella’s statement that the government could bring underworld kingpin Makandure Madush to the country if not for the media revealing the details beforehand, Bandara challenged the UNP government to bring former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran back to the country utilising Minister Kiriella’s method.
“I challenge them to bring Arjuna Mahendran back to the country through the Kiriella method,” he said.
The government had also failed to address to the issues of the youth. As a remedy to settle the burning issues of the youth, the government under the guidance of the President launched the Smart Sri Lanka programme recently. The Smart Sri Lanka programme is conducted by the Sri Lanka Institute of Career Guidance (SLICG) under the theme ‘Driving youths towards success’. Under the programme, a youth coordinating centre called ‘smart city’ offices will be opened countrywide in a few months to guide youth. The SLICG which is the main career guidance programme in the country will be the force driving youth towards prosperity, Bandara said.
He said former President J.R Jayewardene had appointed a committee to look into the issues of youths and to suggest practical solutions for those issues. Many years later, at least 80 percent of the recommendations of that committee have not been fulfilled by the political leadership of all parties which ruled the country.
When asked about the political turmoil in the SLFP, Bandara answered that moves are underway under the guidance of President Maithripala Sirisena to strengthen the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to revive its past glory.
Systematic approaches are being launched under the directive of the President to strengthen the SLFP as a major political force in the country, he said.
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