Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa accused the government of formulating policy on inaccurate data, addressing a farmers’ meeting in Tissamaharama, Hambantota District, on Saturday.
Premadasa said the minimum income and wage needed for people to survive remained very low. He pointed to Department of Census and Statistics reports putting Rs. 17,315 as sufficient for one person to live on for 30 days, and questioned whether anyone could actually do so, Ada Derana reported.
Policy built on such a figure, he argued, rests on erroneous data.
He said the government had failed to grasp the hardships people face, putting the share of the population living in poverty at between 30% and 40%. There was no clear plan to lift that group, he said, adding that the government had moved to curtail the Aswesuma welfare programme.
The figure he cited is three months old
Rs. 17,315 was the department’s official poverty line for May. It was superseded in June, when the DCS raised the national line to Rs. 17,592 — a rise of Rs. 277, and 6.7% higher than a year earlier.
This is the second time in three days Premadasa has quoted the superseded May figure. He used the same number at two Medawachchiya meetings on August 27. Ada Derana did not note that the figure was out of date.
The poverty line is not an estimate of a comfortable living standard. It is a statistical threshold — the minimum monthly expenditure needed to meet basic needs, calculated from a specified basket of food and non-food consumption and re-estimated each month.
Aswesuma payments have continued
Premadasa’s claim that the welfare scheme is being curtailed was not detailed in the report. The Welfare Benefits Board credited the August round on August 19, paying more than Rs. 11.56 billion to over 1.2 million families.
Premadasa last addressed farmers in Tissamaharama on July 31. No government response to Saturday’s remarks was reported.
