19 November 2010
The Sri Lankan government’s own figures reveal that from a total budget of $10m (Rs 1214 million) earmarked for rural infrastructure development, only Rs12 million was spent in the seven Tamil speaking districts.
Over half the total budget was spent in three southern Sinhala majority districts.
President Mahinda Rajapakse’s home district of Hambantota received the largest allocation (Rs 408 million), while the second highest went to Kurunegala (Rs157 million) ,with Matara the third largest beneficiary (Rs128 million).
Of the 1% allocated to the seven war-shattered Tamil districts, Jaffna received Rs 7 million, Vavuniya Rs 3 million, Mannar Rs 1 million and Trincomalee Rs 1 million.
Nothing was spent on rural infrastructure in the districts of Mullaitivu, Killinochi and Batticaloa.
For all the hype about ‘Eastern Awakening’ and ‘Northern Spring’, the Sinhala-dominated government constructed a magnificent total of 7.32 km of rural roads in the Tamil speaking areas - out of a total for the island of 533.73km.
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