Financial Times

WB aid programmes will raise poverty levels

Rather than reducing poverty, the World Bank's recent loan and aid grant to Sri Lanka would create disharmony among the people, make them destitute and lead to the expropriation of all natural resources by the powerful of this world, Sri Lankan NGOs say.

The Alliance for the Protection of National Resources and Human Rights, campaigning for the economic rights of the poor, said plans are underway to present a bill to parliament releasing to the market the smallholdings of 1.2 million families which would weaken the production of paddy and other local crops. It would facilitate the transfer of land to large multinationals for the cultivation of export crops and force the rural people into the cities as impoverished rejects.

The Alliance said in a statement that the elimination of secure jobs in the state sector and the introduction of contract labour are being planned while women are being subjected to unscrupulous exploitation by legislating for night work and forced over time.

The government, it said, was acting according to the dictates of the multinational financial institutions and donor countries and rushing through legislation to safeguard the interests of local and foreign corporations.

The Alliance last week launched its campaign at the Dharmagaveshi Hall in Borella on August 27 with a petition urging the government to abandon the donor-led programme.