Rs. 25 mn more for drought relief

The General Treasury has allocated an additional Rs. 25 million to the Disaster Management Ministry to provide immediate drought relief, State Minister Palitha Range Bandara said.

The State Minister said the Disaster Management Ministry had requested another Rs.20 million for the purpose.

State Minister Range Bandara was speaking at a press briefing at the Irrigation and Water Resources and Disaster Management Ministry, on Tuesday.

Referring to a certain political column in a Sunday newspaper that accused the ministry and the government for not taking relief measures for people affected by the long-prevailing drought, State Minister Range Bandara said the government had spent Rs.58.3 million to provide relief for the affected.

The State Minister added that 17 districts were affected by the prolonged drought.

He said 890,001 people from 248,519 families were affected.

The State Minister added that drinking water was provided continuously for 89 Divisional Secretariats and the government distributed 10,512 water canisters among the affected. According to the State Minister, an additional 200 water canisters will also be purchased.

“We provide a monthly allocation of Rs. 5,000 for every farmer whose crops were destroyed due to the drought. We are also distributing dry rations among 200,000 affected families.

“Considering the situation, the government will facilitate and help people dig cultivation wells, tube wells and temporary cultivation wells in tanks in the Anuradhapura district, which is the worst-affected area so far,” he said.

The State Minister added that Myanmar granted 300 Metric Tonnes of rice to be distributed among the drought-affected.

When asked about the recent fuel price hike, the State Minister said the fuel price after two hikes is still less than what was prior to 2015 under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. He said it is necessary to keep the prices on par with the world market price fluctuations.

“This fuel price formula is not just for increasing prices. It operates both ways. When a decrease comes, the formula will apply. However, eventually, the fuel prices will go down,” he said.