Opposition making a demon out of MCC agreement : Patali
A ‘demon’ has been made out of the MCC compact which has been offered by the US government to Sri Lanka on bona fide intentions but the opposition has done everything to hide the benefits of it and hoodwink the people
The concept of achieving accelerated development using the southern and eastern coastal areas is not a new idea. King Parakramabahu the Great (1123–1186)
Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka yesterday said the biggest threat to Sri Lanka comes not from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact but if an American national was elected as the President on November 16.
A ‘demon’ has been made out of the MCC compact which has been offered by the US government to Sri Lanka on bona fide intentions but the opposition has done everything to hide the benefits of it and hoodwink the people, Minister Ranawaka charged. He told reporters last morning that the three corridors that had been identified for accelerated development were not something alien to Sri Lanka.
“The concept of achieving accelerated development using the southern and eastern coastal areas is not a new idea. King Parakramabahu the Great (1123–1186) first mooted this concept and in the recent times Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe raised it in the 90s,” Minister Ranawaka said and added Parakramabahu the great conquered the entire east and south Asia using eastern Sri Lanka as the base.
Minister Ranawaka paid tribute to Sri Lanka professionals for drafting the MCC and said the MCC agreement was an indigenous document prepared by Sri Lanka’s professionals. The Sri Lankan Government has the option of amending the identified projects even after the signing of the Agreement. The MCC compact will have two projects, namely the transport project and the land project. The Transport Project is aimed at increasing the relative efficiency and capacity of the road network and bus system in the Colombo Metropolitan Region and to reduce the cost of transporting passengers and goods between the central region of the country and ports and markets in the rest of the country.
The goal of the Land Project is to increase the availability of information on private land and underutilized state lands or all lands in Sri Lanka to which the Government is lawfully entitled or which may be disposed of by the Government (“State Lands”) to increase land market activity. The Land Project would increase tenure security and tradability of land for smallholders, women, and firms through policy and legal reforms.
“Those uneducated loudmouths with the frog in the well mentality in the opposition spread many a canard on the MCC because they are of the view that if people benefit from the MCC compact, it will be disadvantageous to their political agenda,” Minister Ranawaka charged.
He condemned the cutting off of power at Kurunegala town on Wednesday to sabotage Mr Sajith Premadasa’s propaganda rally and added it has been done in desperation after realizing the heavy defeat.
PIC BY WARUNAWANNIARACHCHI