Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva warned the people not to be misled by a novice in politics in the calibre of Presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka.

He was addressing a meeting at the Ratnapura General Hospital after laying the foundation stone for an Rs 500 million Emergency Unit.

He said Fonseka was promising all sorts of things including a Rs 10,000 pay increase for public servants.

Since Sarath Fonseka had openly acknowledged that he has no knowledge in economy, how can he deliver what he promises? the Minister queried.

He also declared open the renovated Nurses’ Quarters and donated two ambulances to the Pothupitiya and Gilimale Hospitals.

He said that Fonseka had said that he would implement Ranil Wickremasinghe’s economic programmes. But he pointed out that Wickremasinghe’s economic policy was to reduce the 900,000 public service employees to 6,000.

In the Mahinda Chinthanaya, the Minister said, it was stated that the public sector will be strengthened and likewise the number of 900,000 public sector employees will be increased to 1.2 million.

He said the Ratnapura hospital was in an appalling condition under the UNP regime and the UPFA government renovated it at a cost of Rs 45 million.

In the past, only 5,000 Nurses were recruited for training but the current government increased it to 15,000. Now, there are 7,000 MBBS doctors and 1,500 specialist doctors undergoing training.

Under the development of health services as per the Mahinda Chinthanaya, Rs 16 million had been allocated for the Ratnapura district from the National Health Fund. Kahawatta, Balangoda and Embilipitiya Hospitals will also be developed, he said.