The Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe delivered a special statement today (18) and touched on several topics including the present economic crisis, the shortages of essentials as well as the investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks.

He said that everyone should come together and rebuild Sri Lanka and this country can be rebuilt.

Wickremesinghe said that when he accepted the premiership on May 13, a number of issues had arisen due to the collapse of the economy. 

He said: “I have worked to solve them. At the time, the power cut was for 5 hours. I have reduced it to 3 hours. Required amounts of fertilizers are available for the Yala season today. Also, we are working to get the fertilizer needed for the season. We would like to be self-sufficient in food again during the Maha season. “

“We don’t forget that goal. Today we can provide gas continuously. There is no problem about that. We continue to provide diesel as well. There was a problem with Petrol. In fact, I stated in June that three weeks in July will be the most difficult time for us to get fuel. Now we will be able to provide petrol from July 21. Due to the decrease in the international price of fuel, the advantage of that price will be given to the consumers of this country. Also, farmers’ loans have now been waved off, especially for those who have two and half acres of fields within the country. We are continuing discussions with the IMF to build the economy and the discussions with friendly countries are also being continued. We have suffered huge losses due to the collapses of this economy. We have to prepare measures to deal with them.”

“So, we are having a number of such problems in the country. Another one is the question we all are having about the Easter Attack. Any of those procedures have not been finalised yet. My dedication is to resolve these problems, we don’t need to continue with these problems forever.”

“We must ensure that this should be brought to an end, and there should be a full-scale impartial review of the material that is available. If everyone is willing, I would like to get the help of the UK and their police authorities. They are the best that we can find. In addition to the people from Sri Lanka, who will be working on this issue. It is the responsibility of the government to finalise this matter without any further delay.”ranil