Sri Lanka government leaders making contradictory statements without working as a team - opposition accuse

Sri Lanka major opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) MP Hesha Vithanage said that the government has dropped the responsibility of control the second wave of COVID-19. He said that the government leaders and the officials are making contradictory statements without working as a team. 

Addressing a press briefing held in the office of the Opposition Leader, he accused that the Brandix company has not followed the quarantine regulations regarding their employees who were from India, according to his information. 

He further said that patients are afraid of the authorities because of the overuse of military and police powers. Therefore, the patients evade the authorities and sometimes die at home. He urged the government to change the policies regarding the control of COVID-19 for the benefit of the people. 

He said that the government was trying to strictly impose regulations without providing solutions to the problems to social problems like public transport and waste of farmers' and fishermen's products at the market. The government has failed even before the rice millers through their ineffective gazettes on controlling the price of rice. He further said that an institute of which the management was very close to the Rajapaksa family had made the return of the expatriate workers a usurping business. Similarly, the government has made COVID-19 also a business, he charged.  

MP Hesha Vithanage accused that the government was not managing the solutions for the problems because there was no election nearby. He said that the SJB would question in the parliament the insufficient allocation of funds for the Ministry of Health amidst ongoing COVID-19 pandemic through the appropriation bill. 

Four COVID-19 deaths today; prioritize people's problems, not other things - Sri Lanka opposition

Sri Lanka's major opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) accused that the government was trying to quit from the responsibility of COVID-19 pushing the people into trouble while four deaths had been reported today by the time the press conference was held. 

Addressing a press conference held today SJB Puttalm district MP Hector Appuhamy questioned what the government could deliver to the people with the 20th amendment to the constitution now. Accusing the government of giving up control of COVID-19, the SJB MP questioned what had the government done to the COVID-19 fund, including over 120 million dollar World Bank grant. 

He said that the government was not helping the people who were under quarantine as promised to give them a Rs. 10,000 worth pack of food commodities.    

He also stated that the SJB was suspicious over the involvement of Brandix company with the second wave of COVID-19. Appuhamy said that the owner of the company had funded the present government during the election campaign and the investigation on Brandix was delaying despite the Attorney General's orders. 

Appuhamy said that they had suspicion over holding the Lanka Premier League (LPL 2020) cricket tournament at this moment. 

SJB demanded the government to prioritize people's problems worsened by COVID-19 instead of other political programmes like bringing Basil Rajapaksa to parliament and celebrating the government's and ruling party's anniversaries.