Economic downturn in the country shows that politicians as well as public servants have failed in the 74 years

The Minister made these remarks while addressing an official meeting at the Ministry of Environment today to commence the duties of the New Year 2022.

The pledge of commitment to the public service was read out and religious observances were held at the commencement of the New Year duties. The Secretary to the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Anil Jasinghe and other officials were also present at the occasion.

The Minister one out of every 15 people in our country is a public servant.

Maybe by this year this goal will have changed even more. The government has decided to make 50,000 graduates permanent. Also, another 100,000 have been recruited to the public service, he said

He was of the view that a country be developed by strengthening the public service. However, the economic development of our country during the past 74 years has not been at a satisfactory level.

Politicians are directly responsible for that. I have to be responsible for that too. Also, the per capita debt in our country today is around Rs. 08 lakhs. All this shows that politicians as well as public servants have failed.

We have a big target for 2022. We have to spend Rs. 2000 million. The government gave us more money not because we have money. So that money has to be used effectively. Last year some money went to the treasury because of Covid . It will not happen again this year. We all need to work efficiently.

I saw the Minister of Agriculture saying  that neither the Ministry of Health nor the Ministry of Environment helped him in his organic farming. It means that the man who cannot dance is dragged to the ground. When they fail to do their job, others catch on. We started organic farming about two years ago. As the Minister of Agriculture I started organic farming from my paddy field and got a huge harvest.

But now it is not easy to get the farmers back to organic farming. Agriculture made people bitter.

The other is that some governments at that time said that it was cheaper to import than to cultivate in our country. But now what has happened. Can you pay for food? This crisis has arisen abroad as well.

Therefore, His Excellency the President is of the opinion that the opportunity should be provided to fulfill the needs of the people without these queues from next month as well. I think we will start a new program for that by next month. Therefore, the situation where we buy goods from these queues including gas queues and milk powder queues will change from next month.

Specialist Dr. Anil Jasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Environment also spoke.

We as the Ministry of Environment did a lot of work last year. But there was more we had to work on. Therefore, we have been allocated Rs. 2000 million this year. We must not allow the projects we implement this year to move into 2023 at all. All the steps we take this year must be completed within this year.

We have a number of programs planned for 2022. Especially when it comes to protecting the environment. Also last year we concluded a program on identifying sensitive ecological zones. However, we decided to continue this

program this year as well. We have already identified about 200 sensitive ecological zones. But we have not finished that work yet. They should all be completed this year. Therefore, it is our responsibility to prepare all future programs while protecting the environment as expected by the government, he said.