Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadasa said today the Yahapalana government will give priority to rescuing the people from the evils of tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
What the previous government did under the ‘Mathata Thitha’ was to grant liquor licenses to their cronies, he said.
“Then when these cronies ventured out for various other illegal businesses connected to the liquor trade, the political leadership even threatened the Police to secure their release,” he said.
He was addressing a ceremony at a new service center in Muwanwewa, Lunugamwehera.
“Lots of narcotics were brought to the country by containers during the former regime. Today our government is nabbing such a narcotic containers.
The Customs is also rendering a yeoman service islandwide to tackle the narcotics,” the Minister said.
“We have stopped the practice of giving liquor licenses through politicians. The responsibility of the politicians is not giving liquor licenses but rather to serve the villagers. We can see large crowd of people in front of the liquor stores every evening. They spent lots of money on alcohol, which has destroyed their families and relationships. Therefore, we all have to get-together to make a drug and alcohol free Sri Lanka. Then, we can make our country prosperous,” he further said.