Colombo: As protests raged unchecked in Sri Lanka, prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who heads the clan in power, appealed to the people to end the anti-government protests, saying every minute spent on the streets deprived the cash-strapped country of precious dollars.
Mahinda, who was president for two terms before his brother Gotabaya took over, said in his address to the nation that the government was working round-the-clock to overcome the economic crisis. This was Mahinda’s first public appearance since the protests began and came amid bids by president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to form an all-party government. The opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), meanwhile, continued its efforts to move a no-trust motion against the government in the parliament.
Talks to establish an all- party interim government to deal with the unprecedented economic crisis, however, remained inconclusive. On Sunday, president Gotabaya had invited 42 parliamentarians from 11 parties for a discussion on the country’s economic crisis. On the opposition front, SJB MP Harsha De Silva said that his party was confident of getting the desired simple majority of 113 to back its no-trust motion against the government for the “gross mismanagement of the country’s economy and its poor economic policies”.
India extends credit worth $1 bn
India announced a $ 1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka recently as part of its financial assistance to help the island nation deal with its economic crisis. After an agreement to extend the line of credit was inked, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India has always stood with the people of Sri Lanka and will continue to extend all possible support to the country. He said the assistance will be used for importing food, medicines and other essential items.
Lanka speaker warns of starvation
As Sri Lanka continues to grapple with an unprecedented economic crisis, speaker of the country’s parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, painted a doomsday scenario where starvation and power outages would be common across the island nation of 22 million. Meanwhile, queues for fuel got longer and religious leaders joined protesters on streets.
Addressing the parliament at the beginning of a two-day debate, Abeywardana said, “We are told this is the worst crisis, but I think this is just the beginning. Shortage of food, gas and electricity will get worse. There will be starvation.” The legislators had insisted on a debate on the emergency decree during this week's session of parliament.
