He said the value of the promises rests purely on how the parties concerned were able to deliver on their promises in the past.

The President added that the entire country had to wait for 60 years until he became the President to create a new Sri Lanka.

President Rajapaksa stressed that the opposition candidate’s manifesto is a copy of the Government’s 2015 budget and everything the opposition candidate said in the manifesto have already been implemented.

The President added that the opposition candidate had mentioned in the manifesto that employees in the public sector who had completed over 180 days would be absorbed into permanent service.

“The opposition candidate has nothing to do since I have already granted them permanency,” he said.

President Rajapaksa added that such employees who were working in the Ceylon Electricity Board were also granted permanency though there is a delay in issuing the letter to each and every such employee.
“I have directed the authorities to issue the letters to them soon,” he said.

President Rajapaksa added that the opposition has come to an agreement with separatist forces to divide the country and these agreements are not divulged to the people.

“What the opposition wants is to stir the flames of communalism and racism to destroy this country and the policy paper has been designed to meet the requirement of the separatist forces,” he said.

The President added that the opposition candidate has not mentioned a single word about the fertilizer subsidy being provided by the UPFA Government to the farmers in his manifesto.

“This means that he wishes to stop extending this facility to the farmers if he happened to be the President,” he said.

The President added that the monopoly in the paddy purchasing and rice production will be ended after January 9. He said that there are elements that are in the practice of purchasing paddy from the farmers at cheaper rates and selling them after processing them at the highest rate.

“We will give more teeth to the Paddy Marketing Board to ensure the rights of innocent farmers. This practice of exploiting the farmers and consumers would be ended after January 9,” he stressed.

The President added that the strength of the public service which was to be totally privatized was increased from 0.6 million to 1.5 million and 150,000 youths would be provided Government employment soon.

He said the funds for the recruitment of 150,000 youths to the Government service has already been set apart through the 2015 budget. (PRIU)