Minister says 300 trees cut down for each candidate
Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said yesterday that about 300 trees had to be destroyed to produce the number of posters being put up by each of the candidates to sustain their greed for power.
“We need about 30 large trees to produce a tonne of paper to print about 100,000 posters. At this rate each of the main offenders will be responsible for the cutting down of more than 300 trees to produce the huge amount of posters being put up by them in the fight for preferential votes,” the Minister told a JHU news conference.
Mr. Ranawaka is on record as saying he will not use posters, polythene or plastic material for his campaign said he planned to recycle whatever other material he used for his election campaign.
“Rs.3.8 million is needed to pay the salary of a parliamentarian during a six-year term but some candidates have a budget of Rs.380 million for their election campaign in a naked display of extravagance and the greed for power.
This gross waste of resources can be reduced to a large extent by re-introducing the first-past-the-post system of elections,” the minister said.