It is the Rajapaksa regime which had driven the profit earning Board Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) to bankruptcy, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said.
Addressing an election propaganda meeting in Colombo Central, Minister Ranawaka said Mahinda Rajapaksa built an International Conference Hall in Hambantota named after him spending Rs 863 million and it was unable to pay even its water and electricity bills because not a single international conference had been staged there ever since.
“It was public money that was being used to pay up its taxes today. Ranawaka said Rajapaksa’s eyes grew large on seeing the Kettarama R. Premadasa Stadium,” Minister Ranawaka said.
He (Rajapaksa) tried to match it by building an International Cricket Stadium in Sooriyawewa by utilising Rs.6000 million belonging to the SLPA,” the Minister said. “This had made the Colombo Port Bankrupt,” Minister Ranawaka said. “The stadium had staged only three international matches so far. The BCCSL which was a financially strong institution in the world of cricket suffered bankruptcy due to the crime committed by erecting the Sooriyawewa stadium to perpetuate the Rajapaksa name,” he said.
“The BIA, Katunayake Airport is a busy airport, particularly at night, with more than 200 inbound and out bound flights daily. Due to overcrowding there was a proposal in 2009 to build a second runway. Instead of building the second runway there the Rajapaksa regime built an Airport in Mattala which is almost in an abandoned state without regular flights servicing it. More than that, the SriLankan Airlines had become a financial loss due to mismanagement during the Rajapaksa regime,” Minister Ranawaka alleged.
“The Colombo Port was capable of handling a maximum of 6 million TEUs. As such it needed another Western and Eastern Terminal. Instead of building them the Rajapaksa regime built a Port in Hambantota which was rarely serviced by ships,” Minister Ranawaka said. “Each member of the country’s population today had to pocket out Rs.2000 to maintain the Hambantota Port. The present government did not believe in building unwanted edifices to establish a personality cult in this country. It wants to create development schemes which catered to the needs of the people. A fine example was the Rajagiriya Flyover which services 164,000 vehicles daily,” Minister Ranawaka added.