Speaking on the budget allocations to the educational sector, the Convener of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) Lahiru Weerasekara said that the government should present clear facts on the exact amounts allocated to each area in the education sector.

Weerasekara pointed out that both higher education sector and highway sector are under the same ministry. It should be clear as to how much the government has allocated for higher education for 2016, he further said.

He also severely criticized certain provisions in the budget proposals. For example, the government has failed to explain the procedure in establishing the proposed ‘Mahapola University’ in Malabe, he said.

“In 2002 we clearly remember how Ranil Wickremasinghe and Ravi Karunanayake withdrew money from Mahapola Trust Fund to establish the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, which now offers degrees for money” he asserted. Therefore, the students have fair doubts about the proposed university, he remarked. While the government claims to develop infrastructure facilities of state universities, it is also promoting private universities. These are contradictory statements since more developmed state universities should make private universities redundant, Weerasekara argued.