By S. J. Anthony Fernando
The Samurdhi Animators,the personnel re-cruited by the People's Alliance government, to guide those in the depths of poverty to get out of the poverty trap, has let the cat out of the bag declaring themselves as political animals.

During their recent protest campaigns and demonstrations demanding perma-nency in their jobs, they threatened not to help the PA election campaigns in the future. Thus proving they were political appointees and not recruited on merit or suitability.

It is in this respect we feel that the so-called Samurdhi Poverty Alleviation programme which replaced the previous Government's Janasaviya Programme, was fundamentally flawed from the start.

Poverty affects people of all races, religions, caste or creed or political hues. Tackling poverty essentially has to be taken above party politics. Appointing party supporters to handle such a vital function as tackling poverty gives rise to doubts whether the intended results could be achieved. Can anyone expect such appointees to act without political bias?

Late President Ranasinghe Premadasa when he introduced the Janasaviya Poverty Alleviation Programme was insistent that the beneficiaries should be selected devoid of politics by public officials and voluntary organisations. Only supervision and monitoring was done at political level.

He allowed village level community leaders and social service organisations to oversee the selection of the poor in the area as they knew best who they are.

Though there had been allegations even under such a scheme that those not deserving to receive Janasaviya received assistance, yet by and large a large segment of the poor benefited devoid of politics.

They were expected to emerge out of the poverty trap after receiving assistance for sustenance for two years during which they were trained in some vocation or a self employment venture.

Several lakhs of poor families benefited in four rounds out of the 11 rounds earmarked to cover the identified poor families throughout the island. President Premadasa died and with it the Janasaviya Programme died as well due to lack of dynamism and drive. The P.A. abandoned it.

Samurdhi replaced Janasaviya. Janasaviya recipients continued to get the food stamp allowances. Samurdhi instead gave a monthly allowance as Samurdhi donation to the poor but a much lesser amount than Janasaviya allo-wances.

Complaints are plenty that thousands deserving such dona-tions do not get Samurdhi donations.

How many of Samurdhi beneficiaries have succeeded in setting themselves up in gainful employment and got out of poverty? The Samurdhi ani-mators are supposed to guide them in that task. But with Samurdhi animators themselves being a disgruntled lot can they deliver the goods? How could they train the poor in gainful employment when they themselves are not properly trained and also not being satisfied in their jobs.

Now the govern-ment to save face is to make 10,000 of the Samurdhi animators permanent by fixing them in other government jobs like Grama Sevakas, etc. while the others are crying foul. One could see how the P.A. has worked itself into such an uncomfortable position due to bad planning and acting without foresight, giving grandiose pro-mises and hopes to these youths.

What would the World Bank think of such action when these persons are taken to swell a public service cadre already over-burdened? These appointees are brazenly political appointees. What would their plight be under a government of a different hue?

The hapazard recruitment of Samurdhi Animators without proper employ-ment conditions smacks of improper planning and mere patch work by the P.A. government to temporarily get over a political problem of its own making.