Video:Government selling land and sea to foreigners - Ravi K.

8 August 2013 12:43 pm Views - 4085

UNP parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake charged today that the government was selling every inch of land to foreigners according to its whims and fancies and said even the sea was being sold to China.

 “The government is going to sell a 568-acre sea area to China through the ports authority. It is expected to spend 182 billion to fill the sea bed to develop a city when there is enough land in Colombo. Who is doing this for what reason when the people in Weliweriya are fighting for drinking water? About 6.5 acres of land on D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha are also going to be sold to a Casino company. The Sathosa land in Rajagiriya which was closed down is also planned to be sold to foreigners”, he alleged.

Mr. Karunanayake said a huge fraud had come to light with regard to the Norochcholai power plant where the contract signed by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike for 268 million US dollars in 2005 was cancelled and signed again for 568 million US dollars during the same year.

“For whose benefit was this done when the people are struggling to survive? This is why the people have to pay such a big electricity bill. We raised this issue in Parliament but there was no answer as to why this was increased, he said.

Mr. Karunanayake said the UNP candidates who were contesting the Northern Provincial Council election had been interrogated by the intelligence division of the Defence Ministry as to why and for what reason they were contesting the election. “They have no right to do so”, he said.(Ajith Siriwardana)