Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, after promising salary hikes, larger pensions, doles and various other impossible pledges, now comes out with the ‘mother of all promises’ i.e. 10-15 perches of land extent to each and every new born.

“Either he does not know his arithmetic or he wants to get his name in the Guinness Book of Records as the person who made the most impossible promise,’ an analyst commented.

Is Gen (retd) Fonseka aware of the population of Colombo city, the annual birth rate of the capital city and the land extent of Colombo? It is a simple arithmetic to learn that he will run out of land in no time and he will possibly have to invade foreign territories to find land for the new born children. Perhaps, he wanted to increase the strength of the army by another 200,000 in order to prepare for his theory of expansionism.

Sri Lanka’s population is approximately 19 million and nearly 2.5 million people live in Colombo. The birth rate, according to the 2001 survey was 15.63 per 1000. However, according to a recent survey by the United Nations, the birth rate has increased to 16.26 per 1000. This survey was conducted, taking the births taken place between 2005 to 2009 into consideration.

Accordingly, any school child could do a simple calculation and find out that there are over 300,000 births per annum in Sri Lanka.

In Colombo alone there are more than 40,000 births every year. Hence, Mr Fonseka, if elected by a gullible voter whose forte is not arithmetic, will require 600,000 perches of land area to be given 15 perches each to new born children in Colombo in one year. During his 6 year tenure, he will require 3.6 million perches of land in the city of Colombo for free distribution among the newly born infants. This is, of course, without calculating the chain reaction of the young couples who would produce more and more children to get their land extent doubled every year, if possible. The incentive is so great that a perch in Colombo costs millions of rupees and one could easily foresee a sudden upswing in birth rate.

Let us go back to Gen Fonseka’s requirement of land for distribution to new-born children. He will need 3.6 million perches in the City of Colombo. As there are 160 perches per acre, he will have to find nearly 40,000 acres or 80 Sq Km of additional land in Colombo.

“If this foolhardy scheme is implemented, Colombo will not have a single green area, parks, water-retrenchment low lands or even play grounds and open school yards,” the analyst said. “The city will be a concrete jungle without trees or green patches of land.”

If one takes the whole country into consideration, the requirement of land for free distribution is mind-boggling. Land area of 4.5 million perches will be required annually for 300,000 new born children and in six years it will be 27 million perches of land.

Gen Fonseka’s promise of free land to newly born children will be a sure prescription for a nation without plantations, forestry, nature parks. This will drive Sri Lanka into the bottom of the ‘Best countries to live,’ the analyst concluded.