Budget : Committee State - 15th Day

Votes of the Ministry of Ports Development, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

"We have a progress report minus minister's speech"

Parliament met at 9.30 a.m. Thursday, November 10, 1998, with speaker in the chair.

After presentation of petitions and papers, Ministers answered oral questions. House sat in committee to discuss the votes of the Ministry of Ports Development Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

Harold Herath, (UNP - Puttalam district) moved a cut of Rs. 10 from the Votes of the Ministry of Ports Development Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

He said last year we had the minister's programme of development for Ports, and the minister's speech in which he detailed the activities during the year.

This year we have a progress report minus the minister's speech.

There is an admission this year (1998) that there had been a shortfall in transhipment Car.

The decline in the transhipment cargo was due to failures in the ministry. There should have been an increase in the transhipment cargo movement between Colombo and the Indian sub-continent.

The Minister has appointed a committee with instruction to submit a report within 10 days to him. But this will not make any difference as the committee comprises of persons who were involved with activities of the port last year.

Increasing numbers of transhipment vessels are now avoiding Colombo Port.

We handed over a very well organised ports to you. You must at least try to maintain the levels of operations existing at that time.

You must reduce the port charges at least in respect of the regional traffic.

At least the shippers are now paying the port in built 8 percent tax plus the 12.5 percent GST totally amounting to 20.5 percent.

There is no development to put your plans into operation. Neither tenders, nor financial commitments to put them in operation.

You projected the container handling to 5 million by the next millennium. Today you have only 1.6 million.

Your ships are colliding against each other due to the inadequacy of the water basin of the port.

Your ministry has thrown out all suggestions of the Treasury. There is extravagant expenditure. You have been importing Volvos costing rupees two or three million. For whom are these expensive cars being imported? Money of the ports is people's money. It should be spent to develop the port.

Now there is another issue. The chairman of a political party asking in writing from the Chairman Sri Lanka Ports Authority to contribute Rs. 50,000 for the printing of a book by the said political party.

I have that particular letter with me but I will not table it because Minister Ashraff was my friend and it was so embarrassing time.

Minister Ashraff: You can table it if you have such a letter.

Harold Herath: Do you want me to table it. Perhaps you may not be aware of it. But it has sent by the Chairman of your party. This is a thing that should never have been ever done.

Moneys of the ports are moneys of the people and it should not have been spent on any thing other than ports own development activities.

G. L. Peiris (Minister of Justice Constitutional Affairs Ethnic Affairs and National Integration)

Facts and figures will refute the basic contentions of Harold Herath. The P and O has attracted the best of financiers in the world.

The phenomenal progress achieved by this government incontrovertible. The revenue in the Port of Colombo has increased by 300 percent.

Isn't it inevitable when you increase port charges?

Actual investment in the Port of Colombo has increased by more than 100 percent. It reflects the sense of seriousness the government to develop the port.

The Jaya Container Terminal is one of the major addition after our government came to power. A new oil terminal was constructed in 1996. A unity container terminal was commissioned in 1998. Computer operated yard planning was added to enhance its functions.

The average number of arrivals to the Port of Colombo increased by 7 percent from 1994 to 1997.

Average cargo handling increased significantly. The port has become a hive of activity. These are the available facts I have obtained from the Treasury.

I think the House should acknowledge the indefatigable efforts of the minister.

Ronnie de Mel (UNP- Matara district) said: Minister Ashraff is no doubt a man of good intention. But good intention alone cannot deliver the goods. There should be money for development.

Now look at the Galle Port, which the government claimed to give 15,000 jobs, when developed. But nothing has been done for four years and three months. Now you have said a British consultant has been appointed to prepare a Master Plan to develop the Galle Port.

This is what you have done for four years. At this rate you will take 100 years to implement the project. It you begun work at the correct time you might have by now completed the whole project.

You invited the so-called UK-China Consortium to undertake the construction of the Galle Port. We told you it was not a company but only letter box with no money, or expertise. This is what you say after four years.

Now you have got hold of another UK company Postford Duvivier Consultancy Engineers to prepare the Master Plan. Will this company too become a UK-China Consortium? There are so many competent companies in UK and the continent which are capable of handling ports related activities. I have never heard the like of the latest company. I don't mind it this company is a competent one.

What has happened to the so-called Asia's greatest harbour in the Hambantota. Nothing has happened.

Please give us an explanation. After four years and three months are you telling us you are still in the initial stages of development.

I would now touch on marine pollutions. With the amount of marine pollution going on in the South, very soon we will not have any high class tourists in this country. We will have some package tourists but not the high class tourists.

If you went to implement your plans and develop the ports, please ask the Finance Minister to provide you with the money. Without money you cannot do anything.

When I was Finance Minister I gave all the money to the then Shipping Minister Lalith Athulathmudali to develop the Colombo Port.

Abdul Majeed (SLMC, National List) said the minister has given a new lease of life to port development, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Colombo Port has been ranked 20th. I would like to thank the minister for his proposal to construct a new jeety in Trincomalee, and I hope the work will commence in early 1999.

A rehabilitation project in Trincomalee has been initiated by the minister with Norwegian government aid.

P. Dayaratna (UNP, Ampara district) said reconstruction and rehabilitation should be given priority and should be under one ministry at a time we are facing refugee crisis. Various institutions that deal with rehabilitation and reconstruction specially in the North and East is managed under several ministries. At least there should be more co-ordination.

Are you going to give financial assistance to those singled out as political victims. Is it a ploy to assist your supporters? In Dehiattakandiya a selected section were given financial assistance. How did you select them? Why didn't you distribute these funds among the needy without singling several of them?

You gave a telephone connection to the Deegawapi Vihara. We were intending to give the phone, but the extension of telephone services to that area could not be completed by us. We entered into the telephone services extension contract.

You gave the telephones.

I had provided a telephone connection to the post office and it was useful to the people. The telephone given to the temple has no access to the public. It is a private connection and the use of it is at the sole discretion of the subscriber.

But the day the telephone connection was given to the temple and it was ceremonially opened by the minister something ugly took place. The priest rang my Colombo home number. I was not at home. My poor wife took the call. The caller told her that "we got the telephone connection which your husband failed to give for 17 years.

This is a very ugly thing. This was done in the presence of Minister Ashraff.

Minister Ashraff: I never resort to such low things. I will make a statement on the matter.

Dayaratne: If you say so I will accept.

Rupees one million has been spent to plant 800 concrete boundary stones to the Deegavapi Vihara land. This is a very high expenditure. Each boundary stone had cost Rs. 1200. The normal price of a stone is about Rs. 150. This exorbitant expenditure has been met out of the rehabilitation funds.

The person who made a fortune out this expenditure on the Deegawapi Vihara land was a friend of the minister, who is an officer attached to the divisional administration in the area.

The land cleared of vegetation and the roadway opened for the temple land has again been taken over by wilderness. You have spent millions but achieved nothing.

D. Sithardthan (DPLF Wanni district) said: appointments were given by the minister to Tamils not only in the East but also in the Colombo port. The minister has given an opportunity to the Tamil youth. In 1996 the Northern province rehabilitation committee was established.

The minister as leader of the SLMC is actively involved in finding a solution, to the ethic conflict. If a solution is found in Ampara we will be able to find a solution to the ethnic conflict.

John Seneviratne, Minister of Labour said: Ports Development Ministry has several achievements during the last four years to its credit.

Hon'ble Dayaratne who under the last UNP regime held the rehabilitation portfolio was critical of the ministry's activities in the rehabilitation and reconstruction fields.

There may have been a few shortcomings but the overall picture of the ministry's performance was noteworthy.

Education and health of the people in the areas where rehabilitation takes place need special attention.

There was a request by Hon'ble Dayaratne to provide relief to those who had been politically victimised not only from 1977 to 1994 but also during other periods.

There are people who lost their homes after the general elections of 1977. The victims have left their birth places and are now living with relatives. The victims have made many requests for relief and compensation for their house and property which were set on fire and destroyed. I request the minister to take note of this section of victimised people who have still not received my redress.

Ananda Kularatne (UNP Hambantota district) said: according to the report on policy, strategies, achievements and performance no mention has been made about the proposed Hambantota commercial port. However you have mentioned about the Galle, Trincomalee and Oluvil harbours.

The development of the Hambantota harbour, the extension of the railway line and the building of the proposed super highway between Colombo and Hambantota is essential for the development of my district.

Under the UNP regime we had made preliminary arrangements to develop the Hambantota Port but since your government came into power nothing has been done.

There are 25,000 hectares in Hambantota district to be used for facilities of the Hambantota sea road.

About 36,000 ships travel past Hambantota each year and only 4000 ships arrive in Colombo. Many more ships will find their way to Hambantota Port if it is developed.

We give a solemn pledge to build the Hambantota harbour under a government of our leader Ranil Wickremasinghe and also will pledge to cancel all the agreements signed under dubious circumstances.

Pavithra Wanniarachchi Deputy Minister of Health said: I would like to appeal to the minister to make arrangements to pay compensation to persons in the Ratnapura district, whose houses were burnt, during the 1977 elections.

Dr. Jayalath Jayawardane (UNP - National List) said: Hon'ble Sithardthan told the House that as Minister of rehabilitation and reconstruction, Minister Ashraff rendered excellent service in the North.

But the President has decided that the rehabilitation and reconstruction in the North should be taken away from him. This is a very sorry state of affairs.

The minister must prepare a national list of Buddhist temples, Christian churches, Hindu Kovils and Muslim mosques and provide assistance for their rehabilitation without discrimination. You must not confine the model villages to Ampara and a few selected areas alone. Open model villages in all the terrorist affected areas.

P. Selvarasa, (TULF-Batticaloa district) said: rehabilitation and Reconstruction Ministry is under a Minister who belongs to the minority. This fact is rather gratifying to the people who are affected by terrorism and belong to minority communities.

This ministry is helping more people in the South who are not affected by terrorism unlike in the East where the war has caused tremendous suffering.

(Continued Tomorrow)