India rubbishes report of Sri Lanka using Line of Credit to import water cannons

Colombo: The Indian embassy in Sri Lanka on Saturday rubbished the reports suggesting that the Sri Lankan government used the Line of Credit (LoC) extended by India during the ongoing crisis to import a water cannon vehicle.

Issuing a statement on Twitter, the Indian embassy made it clear that the reports suggesting such use of India's assistance as "factually incorrect".

"We have seen reports that a water canon vehicle was imported by Government of #SriLanka under a credit line extended by Government of #India. These reports are factually incorrect," the Indian embassy said.

Clarifying the issue further, the Indian embassy said, "No water canon vehicles have been supplied by #India under any of the credit lines extended by #India to #SriLanka."

"Credit line of USD 1 billion to Sri Lanka is intended to help the people of Sri Lanka with availability of food, medicines and other essential items required by the people of Sri Lanka in the current situation," Indian embassy said.

The Indian mission further said that "such incorrect reports don't make any constructive contribution to the cooperation and efforts to address the ongoing challenges faced by the people of Sri Lanka."

On Thursday, Sri Lanka Police fired tear gas on the protesters on Thursday in order to disperse the protest staged by University students under the theme "Let's oust the government! Let's reverse the system!" outside the parliament.

Taking to the streets to protest against the government led by the Rajapaksa family, the student protestors demanded resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Meanwhile, the massive people's struggle "Go Home Gota" calling President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down at the Galle Face entered the 29th day today.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts affecting a large number of the people, resulting in massive protests over the government's handling of the situation.

The recession is attributed to foreign exchange shortages caused by a fall in tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as reckless economic policies, like the government's move last year to ban chemical fertilizers in a bid to make Sri Lanka's agriculture "100 per cent organic".

Due to an acute shortage of Foreign exchange, Sri Lanka recently defaulted on the entirety of its foreign debt amounting to about USD 51 billion.

The economic situation has led to huge protests with demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.