All 52 MPs in the Joint Opposition (JO) have decided to contribute their June salary to a special account to be opened by the JO, to assist post-disaster relief activities, UPFA Ratnapura District MP Ranjith de Zoysa told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
UPFA General Secretary Minister Mahinda Amaraweera had sent a letter to the JO that the June salary of all UPFA MPs will be deposited to a special fund to provide welfare assistance to the flood and landslide victims. However, Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa had made a statement which had implied that nobody should provide financial assistance. Therefore, the statements made by these two Ministers are contradictory, he said. The JO frontliner said that as the MPs who live in flood affected areas, they could see for themselves the failure of the Government’s post-disaster relief mechanism.
“Therefore, we have an issue as to how the Government would make use of this money given by us to assist the flood and landslide victims. We could also see some Government Ministers in Galle and Ratnapura districts had repacked the goods collected from the people by media institutions and civil organisation under their name tag to gain cheap publicity.”
As a result, all 52 MPs in the JO decided to open a special account to deposit their money to provide assistance to the needy people under a selected criteria. However, a few MPs in the JO will not be able to contribute their entire salary as some of them have obtained bank loans to purchase their duty free vehicles by keeping their salary as collateral, he said.