Protest erupts outside Sri Lankan President's son's house in Los Angeles
Apr 05, 2022
Los Angeles [US], April 5 : As Sri Lanka continues to be witnessing massive protests against the government amid a severe economic crisis, a small group of protestors has gathered outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's son's house in Los Angeles, USA, with protestors calling on him to ask his father to leave his post.
The protester asked President Gotabaya to step down from his position. The protester said that people in Los Angeles are with Sri Lankans, reported the Daily Mirror.
Moreover, fresh protests erupted outside Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday, with people demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
"We are peacefully asking for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President and Mahina Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister to go home and leave the people alone and peaceful," a protestor said.
The country is reeling through a round of protests from a wide section of the society, with Food vendors in Sri Lanka accusing the Rajapaksa government of selling everything to China adding that the country has nothing and it had bought everything from other countries on credit.
Prices of fruits and vegetables are skyrocketing in Sri Lanka amid economic and political crises. A fruit vendor, Farukh says, "3 to 4 months back apple was sold at Rs 500 per kg, now it is Rs 1000 per kg. The pear was sold at Rs 700 per kg earlier, now it is sold at Rs 1500 per kg. People don't have money."
"Sri Lankan government sold everything to China. That is the biggest problem. Sri Lanka has no money as it has sold everything to China. It is buying everything on credit from other countries," he added.
Members of the hotel association and its staff members also protested outside the tourism board in Colombo in heavy numbers in rain.
Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has, incidentally, affected its capacity to import food and fuel, leading to the power cuts in the country. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries.
On Sunday, 26-member Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers submitted resignations amid rising public anger against the government over the economic crisis.
Meanwhile, the 36-hour long curfew that was imposed on Sri Lanka on Saturday evening at 6 pm was lifted on Monday morning at 6 am but the country is still under a state of emergency.
Earlier on Saturday, India delivered 40,000 MT of diesel to Sri Lanka to help ease the power crisis in the island country. As part of the US 500 million oil line of credit (LoC) extended by India to Sri Lanka, this was the fourth consignment of fuel delivered to Colombo.
Further, India has supplied around 200,000 MT of fuel to the island nation over the last 50 days.
