ManoG meets President, appeals intended welfare monthly welfare relief for plantation families

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s most marginalised plantation families should also be included in the proposed 14,000-rupee monthly social security payment scheme, TPA leader and Colombo MP Mano Ganesan has urged President Ranil Wickremasinghe.

The MP reiterated his request during a recent meeting with the President.

The TPA leader suggested that households consuming 1 to 90 units in their monthly electricity bills could be considered as low-income and highly disadvantaged groups.

Such a criteria will ensure welfare payments are made available in a fair manner to all needy families without any political intervention, Mano Ganesan pointed out.

The MP praised the government, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund — Sri Lanka’s development partners —— to moving to provide such monthly welfare payments to the more vulnerable sections as economic reform gather pace.

He, however, stressed that plantation families who faced discrimination in the Samurdi scheme must not be ignored in the upcoming social security and relief process.

He highlighted the plight of plantation communities in Badulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Kegala, Ratnapura, Avisawala, Kalutara, Matala, Galle and Matara and called for measures to uplift their lives.

On the basis of a daily wage of Rs. 1,000, the MP urged that these distressed workers should not be unfairly left out from the scheme by writing on paper that their monthly income is Rs.25,000

Similarly, he said that people who do not work also live in the plantation areas need this financial support.