{"id":159352,"date":"2016-03-17T14:09:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T08:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=159352"},"modified":"2016-03-17T14:09:47","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T08:39:47","slug":"peoples-movement-against-port-city-wants-project-halted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/peoples-movement-against-port-city-wants-project-halted\/","title":{"rendered":"People\u2019s Movement Against Port City Wants Project Halted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The People\u2019s Movement against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Port+City&amp;x=9&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Port City<\/span><\/a> has demanded President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to immediately halt the project as it is detrimental to the country\u2019s environment.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/melani-manel-perera-match-11-2016\/port-city-2-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-159056\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-159056\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Port-City-2.jpg\" alt=\"Port City 2\" width=\"639\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Port-City-2.jpg 639w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Port-City-2-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the movement recalled Wickremesinghe\u2019s initial stand on the project during the Presidential Election campaign in 2014, where he reportedly said the \u201cwestern coast would be severely affected as a result of the construction activities of the Port City project. We ought to protect the coast. The coastal belt from Colombo to Kalpitiya and from Colombo to Hikkaduwa will be lost as a result if it is carried out\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen a journalist threw at him a very specific question during a press conference whether he would stop or continue the Port City project under his government. He clearly replied that the project will be halted,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cListening to people\u2019s views and criticisms, and the participation of people in the decision making processes, are essential traits of good governance, and views that have been expressed by people, environmentalists, experts as a response to the EIA report on the Colombo Port City Project cannot be ignored by a democratic government,\u201d the movement said.<\/p>\n<p>According to them, it was due to the lack of such democratic traits that the government of Rajapaksa was also rejected by the people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSurely, people do not expect such a devilish government back in power. Nevertheless, when the lives of people are threatened by its development strategies and if the country is ruled in a dictatorial manner ignoring people\u2019s views, it is the responsibility of the people to oppose such governance,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":159056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>People\u2019s Movement Against Port City Wants Project Halted - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/peoples-movement-against-port-city-wants-project-halted\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"People\u2019s Movement Against Port City Wants Project Halted - 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