Chief Government Whip and Minister Prasanna Ranatunga emphasised in Parliament that funds have been allocated for development activities in a transparent manner to all MPs on Friday (26). He pointed out that several statements that the Government has not provided decentralised funds to the Opposition MPs this year are baseless.
He also said that decentralised funds will not be allocated to Parliamentarians either Opposition or Government this year and funds will be released to District Secretaries based on the available number of seats in each district.
He said this while replying to a matter raised by SJB MP Ashok Abeysinghe in Parliament on Friday.
He stated that it was the demand of the people to implement development projects in general rather than allocating decentralised funds individually and therefore the decentralised budget allocated to the District Committees would be directed to the Regional Development Committees later.
Then the funds will be forwarded to the rural committees through the regional committee. Otherwise, MPs allocate money as they wish, especially allocate funds only for projects and roads of those who voted for them. Then there is no common development countrywide. That is why funds has been allocated to the District Development Committee and later diverted to the regional committees with the aim of reconstructing the grassroots economy this time,” he added.
Irangika Range