Samurdhi report rejected; another being prepared: SB

The report on 2.3 million Samurdhi recipients had been rejected after a meeting held at the ministry today, Social Welfare Minister S.B. Dissanayake said.

He said the ministry was collecting information on Samurdhi recipients, who were entitled to receive Samurdhi benefits.

“It was a 17-page questionnaire. It included six main criteria and 29 sub criteria. All collected data had to be digitized. During the process of digitizing the data, some pages had been omitted and some files had gone missing,” he said.

After the report was published, the Ministry received several complaints that the Samurdhi recipients, really entitled to receive such benefits, had been left out. Even President Maithripala Sirisena had instructed that justice should be meted out to the genuine Samurdhi recipients.

“The Ministry has instructed the District Secretariats to re-enter the data properly and include the names of all Samurdhi recipients, who are really need Samurdhi benefits,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Sub Committee appointed by the President said the public had been misled by false media reports saying that Samurdhi allowance of some beneficiaries had been suspended.