The All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) has criticized Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision to slash budget allocations for Northern IDPs.

“The funds allocated for long term IDPs in the last budget has been drastically slashed” said the Leader of ACMC MP Rishad Bathiudeen after leaving the House yesterday (30).   

“These long term IDPs, most of them are Muslims in Northern Province, are the group to suffer the longest since the war times. Their resettlement and welfare support by the government is vital since there is no one else to spend for them”, ACMC Leader MP Bathiudeen said.

“Before our former Cabinet was replaced by the illegal government of October 26 with its new Cabinet, the former Cabinet had approved funds for resettlement of these old IDPs. The approval was a thorough process, and it was also cleared by the policy Planning Ministry of previous Cabinet. Using these approved allocations, resettlement work already started from August 2018”, he says.

It is unfortunate that the newly appointed PM Rajapaksa has slashed Rs 250 Million from these ongoing allocations, leaving these IDPs in great difficulty, stated the MP.

“Despite leading an illegitimate government, he has even instructed to divert this Rs 250 million for other work away from IDP resettlement”, says Bathiudeen.

“This is an illegal action and harms the ongoing resettlement process of IDPs and therefore I, as an MP from Vanni District have complained to our Speaker Karu Jayasuriya today to mediate and resolve this. We want IDP resettlement process to resume as soon as possible” , he further said.