SINHALA GOVT WANT TO SELL MOST TO TAMIL IDPs!!! NEED THEIR SAVINGS AS DEPOSITS IN BANKS!!! BUT DENY BASIC FREEDOM,SAFETY AND HUMAN RIGHTS...!!!

Lak Sathosa hits record sales at Menik Farm

By Kelum Bandara

The Lak Sathosa outlets set up in the Menik Farm Welfare Village in Vavuniya have hit record trade volumes running to the tune of Rs. 1.2 million on a daily basis, Trade and Consumer Services Minister Bandula Gunawardane said yesterday.

The Minister said that the maximum daily trade volume recorded in an outlet in the south was only Rs. 600,000-700,000. After an observation tour in the welfare village, Mr. Gunawardane told Daily Mirror yesterday that the purchasing power of these displaced civilians was much higher than that of most people in the south.

“When these people lived in the LTTE-held areas in the past, they had hoarded their earned money without investing them in anything.

That is why, they were able to deposit Rs. 300 million in the branches of the state banks put up in the welfare villages,” he said.

Unlike consumers in the south, the Minister said, these displaced civilians had mostly bought cool drinks, biscuit items, chocolates and water bottles from the Lak Sathosa outlets instead of essential commodities such as rice, sugar and dhal.

“We have now set up the trade outlets of the State Trading Co-rporations. The IDPs can now buy plastic items, bed linen, footwears and other fancy goods from them at prices prevailing in Colombo,” he said.

The government has also decided to open up branches of Osu Salas as well in the areas so that people can buy their drugs at nominals prices.

DAILYMIRROR.LK