President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office on Wednesday announced a summit of all political parties to discuss the economic crisis.
Due to lack of fuel in Sri Lanka , long queues of people are being seen at petrol pumps. The situation has become so bad that the Army had to be deployed at the petrol pumps on Tuesday to manage and monitor the distribution of fuel. The lack of foreign exchange has created a huge economic and energy crisis in the country. Thousands of people are being forced to stand at petrol pumps for hours due to sudden rise in prices of essential commodities and shortage of fuel. People are also facing power cuts for several hours every day.
On Tuesday morning, unarmed soldiers were seen controlling people at pumps operated by the state-owned Salon Petroleum Corporation. “We have decided to deploy military personnel at petrol pumps to avoid any untoward incident as people are carrying fuel in cans to do business,” Energy Minister Gamini Lokuge told reporters. “They (soldiers) will ensure that fuel is properly distributed among the people,” he said. Four of the people queuing for fuel have been reported dead so far. Due to the foreign exchange crisis, the import of fuel, cooking gas and other essential commodities has come to a halt.
India gave loan to Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan government had sought loan help from India, after which last week India gave a loan of one billion dollars to overcome the economic crisis. This loan has been given by India to Sri Lanka for the purchase of food products, medicines and other essential things. For this an agreement has also been signed between the two countries. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar gave information about this deal. He tweeted, ‘Neighborhood first. India stands with Sri Lanka. A loan facility of one billion dollars was signed for the supply of essential commodities. An important element of the package of support from India.
Crisis caused by shortage of foreign exchange
Sri Lanka is battling its worst economic downturn in seven decades. People have had to suffer due to power cuts and stoppage of supply of essential things like gas. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office announced a summit of all political parties on Wednesday to discuss the economic crisis, but opposition groups said they planned to boycott the meeting. Sri Lanka’s financial crisis has arisen due to severe shortage of foreign exchange. Because of this traders are not able to import. The Sri Lankan tourism industry has also come to a standstill due to the Corona epidemic.
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