Comments on: Who rules? https://groundviews.org/2015/02/16/who-rules/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=who-rules Journalism for Citizens Wed, 18 Feb 2015 08:06:23 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: Sharanga Ratnayake https://groundviews.org/2015/02/16/who-rules/#comment-59748 Mon, 16 Feb 2015 04:03:00 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=17384#comment-59748 While acknowledging that the EIA report is important, and that building stuff everywhere should not be the only developmental concern, what exactly do you want the government to do at this point if the EIA report found that the project shouldn’t be continued? Are they supposed to actually stop it? This is a $1.5 billion project, and more than half of it is already invested. Do we pay them back? Where do we find the money to pay them back? Besides, the economy runs on Chinese loans, and our rather nationalistic, independent foreign policy is entirely dependent on China. Can we afford to say no to them after they’ve invested close to $1 billion on this one project?

It was mistake for Ranil to say that he’d stop this project before the election. Being a veteran politician, he should have been able to evade the question. It’s an even bigger mistake to actually make an EIA report. EIA reports should be made, and taken seriously, but not after a billion dollar project is halfway through. Releasing the EIA report now is nothing but a disaster. People tend to forget what it was like one and a half months ago. Frankly, the main political project at this point should be to keep Mahinda out of power. Until a more stable government is elected, and Mahinda is firmly out of power with no way to return in any meaningful way, those who voted for Maithri should be patient and lenient on the government.

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