SLPP and SLFP have common objective: Mahinda Amaraweera

Instead of opposing the United National Party (UNP) which is the main opposition party , some SLPP parliamentarians are making statements against the Sri Lanka Freedom party

The Minister of Transportation, Power and Energy Mahinda Amaraweera said that he is saddened by certain statements made by some back bench parliamentarians of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) about the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). He also said that they could not considering the SLFPERS as opposition members since they too supported Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at the last Presidential Election.

The Minister made these comments yesterday (9) at a media briefing held after a religious ceremony at the Sri Vijaya Dhamma school in Pattamaluwa in Hungama.

He said, “Instead of opposing the United National Party (UNP) which is the main opposition party , some SLPP parliamentarians are making statements against the Sri Lanka Freedom party. Some are doing so in fear of losing their parliament memberships due to incompletion of preference votes. They are the ones who make such statements. But, the President and the Prime Minister who are grateful would not consider those statements as those which are reckoned with.”

He said that there was a big uproar created in the country regarding the purchase of vehicles by the previous government. I am not in the stand that the officers and the politicians should not buy vehicles. But, we do not approve it if the government has purchased vehicles incurring unnecessary funds. The government could have done many things instead of importing luxury vehicles within 20 – 30 years. They could have avoided importing such vehicles.

He added , “the public transport system could have been developed by them and the politicians should become those who use the public transport system; There are such countries in the world. I for one, as the minister of transport, will be happy if politicians will resort to using public transport; I myself use public transport”.

He said that he is also in agreement with the stand held by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to auction all the vehicles that have been imported.