Several politicians react to the 2019 budget

Colombo (News 1st): Several members of the opposition expressed their views on the 2019 budget which was presented in parliament on March 5th. MP Dinesh Gunawardene noted that the Ranil Wickremesinghe government always talked about the plans for the years ahead and not about the plans for the current year. He said their government has brought this country and the economy to a very volatile situation. Meanwhile, MP Janaka Wakkumbura noted that if the people had a dream of buying a car this budget shattered all their dreams. He said there is a proposal to give Rs. 10 million to every married couple, but not even a rupee has been allocated for this proposal. He pointed out that this year's budget did not talk about fertilizer and even though the estate workers demanded that their wages be increased, nothing has been allocated for that. He went onto note that people over the age of 70 were given an allowance during Mahinda Rajapaksa's time, but that is no longer continued. MP Wakkumbura noted that certain backbencher MPs reiterated that they will defeat the President's expense budget. He noted that they were the same group that said that they wouldn't go forward without sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe, they also said that they will defeat a number of ministries, but now they are silent. JVP MP Nalinda Jayatissa expressing his views noted that Minister Mangala Samaraweera has opened his dream shop and although there are many dreams there is very little room for it to become a reality. He said this was the reason for the fiasco that happened on October 26th. He went onto note that they say that if the 52-day conspiracy did not happen the country would have achieved exceptional economic growth. MP Jayatissa noted that as usual they talk about natural disasters, therefore, this minor thing is the real economic problem in Sri Lanka.