The registrar of Shravaka Sangha Sabha Dimbulagala Rahulalankara Nahimi said at a press conference today that if the government acts through their budget proposals to abolish the Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority, which has rendered great service to the entire farming community for more than forty years, and transfer its land powers to the regional secretariats, the majority of the country’s people will face a big problem and it is likely to escalate into an ethnic crisis..
Farmers representatives who participated in the press briefing said those parliamentarians who ever vote in favor of this proposal would not get their support in future elections.
The press conference was held at Sri Sudarsanarama temple in Welikanda Susirigamaya convened by Mahaweli B zone vihara Chief Theroes and the farmers’ representatives.
Dimbulagala Rahulalankara Thero pointed out that the people are helpless due to the sudden arbitrary decisions taken by the rulers of the country. During the organic fertilizer issue majority of the farmers took to the road and staged various demonstrations and protests. Similarly if the move to transfer the land powers of Mahaweli to the regional secretaries large number of farmers will also take to the highway to protest against it.
Rahulalankara Thero also said:
There is a lot of work to be done before the land powers are transferred to the Divisional Secretariat. There could be a border issues which may arise due to this problem.
Especially at a time when the south bank is being developed under the Maduruoya project in Polonnaruwa district, if the land powers here are transferred to the regional secretariat, an ethnic crisis will inevitable between different races in Ampara Polonnaruwa, Batticaloa districts
In this situation, on behalf of the farmer’s representatives of all the 10 Mahaweli zones, as the Dimbulagala Buddha Sravaka Sangha Sabha, I request the president, the prime minister and all the parliamentarians and ministers of the parliament to immediately withdraw the proposal to give Mahaweli land powers to the regional secretaries in the parliamentary committee on the 8th.
The representatives of the farmers’ organizations who joined the press conference mentioned that there are a lot of land problems that need to be solved by the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka and if the Mahawali land powers are transferred to the Divisional Secretariat, the farmers of 10 Mahaweli zones will face a serious crisis.
Those farmer representatives said that any MP who votes in favor of the proposal in the committee stage voting in Parliament on the 8th, will not be given the support of their farmers in future elections.