President faces storm over “Aswesuma”

• The programme drew widespread criticism from parties across the political divide 

By Kelum Bandara  

A fresh political discord has emerged between Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the United National Party(UNP) led by President Ranil Wickremesinghe over the widespread discrepancies in the recently introduced welfare scheme called “Aswesuma”.  

The government announced the latest welfare scheme to select 400,000 families identified as severely poor to be given Rs.15, 000 monthly for three years.  

However, the programme drew widespread criticism from the parties across the political divide since it has excluded a number of people who were beneficiaries of the current welfare programme called ‘Samurdhi’. People stormed the Divisional Secretariats of various areas on Monday and demonstrated. At times, the situation remained tense.  
The SLPP, the key ally of the government, is also up in arms against the government along with the parties in the opposition.   

Asked for a comment in this regard, SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam told Daily Mirror that his party was opposed to the programme.  
“Currently, the government has said it will entertain appeals from those who were left out in the process. Unless it is corrected with the inclusion of those eligible, we will take it up seriously with the president,” he said.   

Also, he raised the SLPP is against the replacement of the Samurdhi programme which he cited as a proven project with “Aswesuma” with no additional benefits.  
“Under Samurdhi, there was a mechanism to empower people. There was a mechanism to help people in distress situations. The Sinhala word ‘Aswesuma’ means consolation. Yet, the word ‘Samurdhi’ means prosperity. We need prosperity rather than consolation. I wonder why the president replaced our programme,” he said. 

 
Earlier, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said the government is committed to preventing any injustice towards the “Aswesuma” beneficiaries.  

“The government assures that any shortcomings in the process of selecting the relevant candidates will be rectified immediately and plans are being made to discuss this with the District Secretaries, Divisional Secretaries, and other parties involved in the programme in the coming week,” the PMD said.  

Don’t fall prey to political parties - State Minister

By Yohan Perera   

State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe asked people not to fall prey to certain political parties and groups on “Aswesuma” since discrepancies will be corrected after the appeal process.   

State Minister Semasinghe told journalists that a certain group is trying to provoke the people and create a issue on the matter. “Even some of the unions of Samurdhi officers have said they would have done a better research to determine recipients but the issue is they did not cooperate with us to do the research,” he said in this regard.   

“The recipient list which was put out is not the final one and will be changed. “We should have made the cash transfer straight away without publishing the list. We did so to enable people to file complaints and to make appeals. These appeals and complaints will help us to find out the real eligible people,” he said.   

“We have received 188,000 appeals and 3300 complains thus far and all these will be looked into and will be addressed,” the Minister assured.   
He assured that over two million family units will receive Aswesuma including those with kidney diseases. Senior citizens and the differently abled will receive it in addition to family units.