Rajapakse helicopter mania – Rs. 2160 million into whose pocket ?

(Lanka-e-News- 25.July.2012, 11.55 PM) Following the LeN exposure of the Mahinda Rajapakse helicopter purchase racket of 14 MI 171 helicopters costing US dollars 300, another media too had reported on it.

After reading that news , a number of questions have begun to prey on my mind. Vide the pictures herein. These are the details revealed by Avia dealer sales Co. - the Int. airlines and helicopter sales dealers. According to them , they sell an M I 171 category helicopter at a price of US $ 9.75 million. That is tax excluded price. Since the SL Govt. is to purchase 14 such helicopters on a n agreement with Russia – the price ought to be still less , and tax – free. 

If any additional amounts are to get added to the price , they must be the insurance payment and transport charges . If a maximum price is to be given to an MI 14 helicopter , that should be assessed as US $ 10 million maximmum. In that event the 14 helicopters should cost US $ 140 million. But as reported by the LeN and the other website , Russia has collected a sum of US $ 300 million from the SL Govt. Now , my confusion is based on the following : 

For a deal which should be concluded for US $ 140 million , why was US $ 300 million paid ? Where did this extra payment of US $ 160 million go? Did they go down the drain or into someone’s /group’s open pockets ? Mind you this is not just a paltry sum – it is Rs. 21600 million in SL rupees ! . Besides these are not monies of any family or ruler , these are hard earned monies of the people who are deprived of their justifiable salary increases and suffering on account of the country’s current economic bungling.

There is another fact to be highlighted in this regard. 

Since the advent of the Rajapakse family govt. , the whole family is using the helicopters for their travel. Namal Rajapakse M P recently arrived for a function of Dilan Perera of Badulla in a helicopter for distribution of computers , but the number of computers distributed was just five. He returned to Colombo too in the helicopter.

Is SL a country that rich to use helicopters to travel to Badulla to distribute five computers? Moreover , if Namal M .P. is allowed to use helicopters for his travel , will other MPs be allowed to use helicopters for their traveling purposes?

Shiranthi Madam travels to and from Carlton Montessori by helicopter . Loving son Yoshitha goes to witness rugby matches in Kandy by helicopter. So do the other son Rohitha , brothers Basil and Gotabaya, the Rajapassas of Maha -Raja-pakse.

If Minister Basil is given helicopter transport , why not the other Ministers? If Secretary Gota can use helicopters for his travel , why not other Secretaries.? But that does not happen that way.

This helicopter mania may belong to the Rajapakses and Rajapassas , but the monies paid for their frolic and fun are out of funds belonging to the poor people of this country. Did the people elect these maniacs for them to enjoy and people to suffer ?

Lest the Rajapakses have forgotten , the mother of the former President of SL , Chandrika Kumaratunge when the latter was the President ,was a n invalid , and traveled in a wheel chair while her brother , a Minister was a chronic arthritis patient . Couldn’t they have traveled in helicopters being physically disabled patients? May be the Rajapakses are of the view that only mental and maniacal patients like themselves must use the helicopters , not the physically disabled . It is also well to remember no previous Presidents of this country wasted this colossal amount of monies to gratify their personal pleasures and frivolities. Neither did they travel by helicopters so recklessly wasting people’s funds. In the circumstances , it is my considered opinion that after the Rajapkses and Rajapassas the worst curse has descended on this country.

-A Govt. servant – a true patriot