The Government must be thankful to the war heroes and should not forget that it survives today thanks mainly to them, JVP MP Premasiri Manage told Parliament.

He was engaged in a hot debate with Transport Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna yesterday during Oral Questions demanding to know what action the Government could take to provide buses to the ‘Ranaviru Gammanaya’ in Wagawattha, Horana.

One of the major problems confronted by the war heroes who received newly built houses at the Ranaviru Gammanaya (war heroes’ village) known by the name Perth Paradise in Wagawattha, was lack of transport facilities, he said. For this reason, many had opted not to settle in the village. Why is it that the Government cannot provide a bus for the use of those families so that they could occupy the remaining houses, he asked.

Minister Alagiyawanna said that the Ministry finds it hard to provide buses not only to new villages, but also to other villages which existed for a long time. In almost all Sri Lanka Central Transport Board depots there were buses idling due to break downs and lack of spare parts.

The Ranaviru Gammanaya in Horana had been given to the war heroes on July 2002 under the name Perth Paradise. The village had 33 blocks of land and 16 houses had been established, but only three families had settled down.

The JVP member called upon the Government to be grateful to the war heroes who had assisted the Government to stay in power.

Minister of Consumer Affairs, H. R. Mithrapala got up and said that the country did not have enough buses thanks to the JVP that set hundreds of buses on fire during its second 1988 uprising.