Government ally Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) yesterday charged that the Finance Ministry is to abolish the farmer pension scheme which had been existing for years.

Member of the JNP Political Affairs Committee and Former Minister Piyasiri Wijenayake made this serious allegation against some officials of the Finance Ministry calling them economic assassins.

Mr. Wijenayake told a news conference yesterday that the officials of the ministry had informed the aged farmers there are no funds to implement the pension scheme. He said the farmers have been informed of this move when they went to claim the pension which is due to them from the village offices.

He said a farmer was paid Rs 200 when the scheme was introduced by the late minister of Agriculture Gamini Jayasuriya in 1987 but it was increased to Rs 500 during the time of late President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He said it was further revised during President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s time where it was increased up to Rs 1000 per month.

“The scheme had run into a crisis as a result of increasing it without a proper rationale,” he said.

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka