The Joint Opposition (JO) announced today (30) that a protest would be launched against the sale of the Trincomalee port.

The Joint Opposition informed the media of the oncoming protest during a media briefing in Colombo today (30).

Accordingly, they announced that the protest would be conducted in Trincomalee on Tuesday (03), and added that the rally would commence at 2.00 pm under the leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament Rohitha Abeygunawardana stated that the country’s economy had collapsed and that the mountain of problems in the country had grown larger.

He said that the present government had failed to protect the islands treasures bearing international value, religious value and national value and that biased pro-government groups were now attempting to sell them off.

Rohitha Abeygunawardana added that the former Minister of Finance had made a significant and memorable contribution to the country, whereas the new Finance Minister had yet to perform a service.

He then proceeded to state that the garbage disposal issue had become a serious problem affecting the whole country, and that the Government had created a state where anyone so much as holding a bag of garbage would be arrested.

Addressing the Uma Oya multi-purpose Development Project, Prasanna Ranaweera stated that no single party could be blamed for the Uma Oya blight, and that both the previous government as well as the reigning government must take responsibility.

He also reminded that President Maithripala Sirisena was serving as the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) when the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report was being compiled.

In response to questions raised by journalists, the JO also stated that the government must arrive at an unwavering decision regarding the prevalent SAITM issue.