Former cricketer serves tea, buns amid fuel shortage in Sri Lanka

India has helped Sri Lanka with thousands of tonnes of diesel and petrol, apart from food and medical supplies, to help ease the acute fuel shortage in the debt-ridden island nation.

Hyderabad: With Sri Lanka going through its worst economic crisis amidst shortage of essentials like food, medicine, cooking gas among other items, former cricketer Roshan Mahanama tweeted expressing concerns over the situation and shared images of him serving buns and tea to the commoners lining up at petrol pumps.

The island nation is struggling to feed its population and provide basic necessities since it got independence from Britain in 1948. "We served tea and buns with the team from Community Meal Share this evening for the people at the petrol queues around Ward Place and Wijerama mawatha.

• We served tea and buns with the team from Community Meal Share this evening for the people at the petrol queues around Ward Place and Wijerama mawatha.
  The queues are getting longer by the day and there will be many health risks to people staying in queues. pic.twitter.com/i0sdr2xptI

  — Roshan Mahanama (@Rosh_Maha) June 18, 2022 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  We served tea and buns with the team from Community Meal Share this evening for the people at the petrol queues around Ward Place and Wijerama mawatha.
  The queues are getting longer by the day and there will be many health risks to people staying in queues. pic.twitter.com/i0sdr2xptI

  — Roshan Mahanama (@Rosh_Maha) June 18, 2022

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  We served tea and buns with the team from Community Meal Share this evening for the people at the petrol queues around Ward Place and Wijerama mawatha.
  The queues are getting longer by the day and there will be many health risks to people staying in queues. pic.twitter.com/i0sdr2xptI

  — Roshan Mahanama (@Rosh_Maha) June 18, 2022

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"The queues are getting longer by the day and there will be many health risks to people staying in queues," Roshan Mahanama said on twitter. The economic crisis has prompted an acute shortage of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and other fuel, toilet paper, and even matches, with Sri Lankans being forced to wait in lines lasting hours outside stores to buy fuel and cooking gas.

Lanka is trying to get crude on credit as it had done during previous currency crises when the central bank printed money and triggered forex shortages. Sri Lanka's oil bill has risen to USD 550 million a month by June 2022 and the energy ministry has been talking to the central bank to get dollars.

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India has helped Sri Lanka with thousands of tonnes of diesel and petrol, apart from food and medical supplies, to help ease the acute fuel shortage in the debt-ridden island nation. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Wednesday no country except India is providing money to the crisis-hit island nation for fuel.