Drought: JO wants govt. to declare emergency

The joint opposition yesterday questioned the government on the delay in providing relief to drought affected areas.

Joint opposition parliamentary group leader Dinesh Gunawardene, who raised a question under standing orders (23)2 in Parliament yesterday, said people of several districts including Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Moneragala, Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Badulla were badly affected by the drought.

However he said the government had failed to keep its word to declare an emergency situation and to provide relief to the people. I visited Kantale recently which is also affected by drought. The people in the area told me that they had not received

He said the government had failed to keep its word to declare an emergency situation and to provide relief to the people

any relief yet. Accordingly the MP wanted to know when the government was planning to provide relief to the affected people and as to when an emergency situation was going to be declared,

Minister of Disaster Management Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, who responded, said there was no need to declare an emergency situation as this was a natural disaster. He said the government has decided to make an assessment on the damages caused by the drought. He said two separate censuses were underway to assess the situation. He said compensation would be paid to the farmers once a proper assessment is done on the destruction of crops.

The minister said 2307 tanks have already been donated to the people in the affected areas while another 3000 tanks will be handed over later. Further he said Sri Lanka has requested for foreign assistance in this regard.