Former Parliamentarian Sandith Samarasinghe has said that the establishment of a new ministry for the control of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 demonstrates that the measures taken by the government to control the spread of the disease have failed.
He was speaking at a media briefing held at the Sirikotha party headquarters yesterday.
He also said that the Government had not taken tangible measures to control the spread of the disease adding that eventhough a lockdown was enforced during the first few months, an election was held and subsequently all measures were relaxed which has led to the second wave.
“The establishment of a new ministry to control the virus, shows that the government has failed to contain it. It also goes to proves that the measures taken thus far have not been effective,” he said. “We ask the Government to think not only about politics but also about the people of the country when governing a country. The government should act with transparency to overcome the current problem.”
He also said that the clashes at the Mahara prison is attributed to the PCR tests. “While some have alleged that it was the work of drug traffickers, the Police have said that clashes erupted over PCR tests. It was also mentioned that a stock pile of medications were stored at the dispensary and were not meant to be given to the prisoners,” he said. “We ask if this prison was run like a hospital reserved for mentally ill people.”
Responding to questions fielded from the media on the future of the party, he said that Ranil Wickremesinghe had stated that the leadership of the party will be handed over to a young leader in the future. “The rest of the party meets and the party takes decisions collectively. The leader does not interfere in those matters. From then on he (Ranil) wanted to hand over the leadership of the party to the youth and see the party move forward with a new face.”
