Port City: Indian Pressure Forced SL To Suspend & Revisit Project
By Ranil Senanayake –August 3, 2016
Dr Ranil Senanayake
The recent statement from the cabinet spokesman on the ‘Port City’ project is a slap in the face of the many Sri Lankans, who lobbied and protested this project on legal as well as health and safety grounds. According to him, it was not Sri Lankans who pointed out the vexing issues behind the land ownership questions under the original agreement, it was Indians ! He is reported to have stated that: “the Chinese funded ‘Port City Project’ (PCP) initiated by the Mahinda Rajapaksa government had to be suspended and re-visited under pressure from India. It was the Indian government that forewarned Sri Lanka of the negatives in the event Sri Lanka went ahead. India said once completed, the project will not come under the jurisdiction of Sri Lanka with a big question mark on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty”
Pressure from India ? If this is the voice of our cabinet, I wonder where are the ears ? Did they not see or hear of the press articles, public presentations, public protests seeking to inform the government of the social, health environmental costs of this project that has not been considered in the original EIA. Proceeding without an valid EIA is illegal, no supplementary EIA as requested has not yet been submitted. I am sure most of the informed public would have been aware of the public protests during the last year and a half of. But the cabinet seems to have been unaware. We wrote, researched, organized, protested etc, we thought that our voices were heard by the government, but the cabinet spokesman says no ! our voices are unheard , the cabinet hears only the voice of India.
The shortcomings of the EIA have been pointed out and it seems impossible for a democratic, responsible government to permit this project to proceed until a comprehensive EIA has been filed. A comprehensive EIA will be one that includes the concerns listed below.
