Colombo: The country is facing an unprecedented economic crisis in the history of Sri Lanka’s independence. Natural life has been paralyzed by skyrocketing prices, shortages of essential commodities, and fuel shortages.
The situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating day by day as people are waiting for hours at power outages, hospitals paralyzed without medicines, petrol-diesel and kiosks.
This economic crisis in Sri Lanka was echoed in the government of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections.
At the same time, Rajapaksa resigned from the cabinet earlier this month to facilitate the formation of a unity government to address the issue. Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa has been ousted.
Then 3 ministers were appointed. Ali Sabri has been appointed as the new Finance Minister. But he resigned on the same day and later accepted the post again.
Following this, Gotabaya Rajapaksa called on all parties to participate in the unity government. Opposition parties called for the beleaguered PM to resign. Thus the drag on the formation of the new cabinet continued.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday appointed 17 new ministers after about 2 weeks in this position. They, too, took office immediately.
The Rajapaksa family has no place in this new cabinet. As a result, only President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa remain in the Sri Lankan government.
Similarly, Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted to give ministerial posts to younger MPs instead of senior members. Accordingly, many new MPs have been given ministerial posts.
It remains to be seen what solutions this new cabinet is proposing to the ongoing economic crisis in the country.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan people, who have been protesting against the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government, are protesting against the new cabinet. They are actively urging Rajapaksa to resign immediately.
Petrol-diesel prices have been rising again since midnight yesterday across the country to further aggravate the suffering they are experiencing on a daily basis.
Thus, petrol price has been hiked by 10 per cent to Rs 338 per liter and diesel by 35 per cent to Rs 289 per liter. It seems that there is currently no chance of alleviating the suffering of the people as this will be echoed in the prices of other commodities. Meanwhile, the ban on the departure of Ajith Nivard Cabral, the outgoing Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, has been further extended. The Colombo Magistrate’s Court has also ordered him to appear for the next two-day hearing.
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Within hours of the inauguration of 17 cabinet ministers in Sri Lanka, 21 associate ministers were sworn in. They were sworn in by Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Among the new ministers was GL Peiris, who was promoted to chief of military staff.
