President Maithripala Sirisena says today the Samurdhi Movement has developed into a broad national power of the people for economic prosperity. He assured that the Government will fulfill its responsibilities without any hesitation to carry forward the Samurdhi Movement taking it from strength to strength in the future. He made these remarks addressing the “Samurdhi Praja Shakthi” National Federation – 2017 held at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre,yesterday(23).
President Sirisena said that the present government has given a new life and strength to the process which support to strengthen all the communities that need to be strengthened and said that during the last two and a half years the government did a significant part to build the Samurdhi Movement for the betterment of the society.
The President said that the Samurdhi Movement is being implemented successfully in seven provinces of the country and said that it is expected to share knowledge, experiences and the contribution of all those who are in the field to successfully implement the Samurdhi programme in the North and Eastern provinces too.
The President said that although there are various constitutional provisions in the nine provinces, the current government’s policy is to build the entire country as a developed and respectful country. He said the government has made plans to formalize the activities of the projects in the North and the East which have been fallen back due to long term conflict. He added that for this purpose the government is recruiting required staff.
“While implementing the local economic policy, the small projects which have been started under Samurdhi, will be upgraded to divisional projects and gradually to the national level. Finally they will moved to the foreign market too”, he said.
President Sirisena presented gifts to four Samurdhi Community-based representatives at this occasion.
Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare and Kandyan Heritage S. B. Dissanayake, Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake, Secretary to the Ministry Shirani Weerakoon, Director General of Samurdhi Development Department Neil Bandara Hapuhinna and the Chairman of Samurdhi Community-based Banks R. A. Chithrani Ranatunga were among those who participated in this event.
