"This is an absurd state of affairs. There are 2.7 million farmers and one million farmers families in the country but the government has stalled the granting of pensions to them. This is the government which does not bat an eyelid to cater to the social and economic elites and also squander funds on tamashas such as Deyata Kirula," Premadasa told The Island yesterday.
He also charged that the government had to pay Rs. 960 million in farmer pensions in 2011 and Rs. 1,092 million last year which means that the total outstanding as of March 2013 remained at Rs. 2,325 million.
Premadasa also pointed out that there were 2.3 million full time farmers in 2010 and 2.7 million in 2011 who constituted 31.2 per cent and 33 per cent of the total agricultural output. Their contributions to the GDP were 12 per cent and 11.2 per cent for the two years under review, he said.
Premadasa said that any farmer between the age of 18 and 54 was entitled to be a member of the pension scheme and they were entitled to reap the benefits of the pension scheme proportionately. "They were entitled to pensions of between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 4,166 monthly which has now been stopped by this heartless act of the government," he said.
He added that Agrarian Services Minister S .M. Chandrasena had assured Parliament, during an adjournment debate on November 22, 2011 that the pensions would be paid to those farmers within a fortnight of the debate and that Deputy Finance Minister Geethanjana Gunawardena had also assured the House that the Treasury was getting ready to pay these pensions from October 2011 via a new scheme soon after the settlement of a postal strike.
Premadasa queried as to whether the new scheme. which the government proposed. was to stop the existing scheme which was in operation and where a new scheme was also not introduced in lieu of it as well!
* Rs. 2,325 million outstanding as at March 2013
*Says state catering to only social and business elites
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