Sri Lanka government which had not contributed to the development of Jaffna district in any significant manner is showing off the development activities in Jaffna peninsula funded by World Bank and Asian Development Bank as if it is spending its own money on them, government officials who participated in SL government’s Jaffna District Development Meeting (DDM) held in Jaffna Secretariat Wednesday said. The meeting was similar to the earlier ones where on going development activities and future plans for development were just ‘explored’ into without any concrete allocation of funds for them. On the whole it was lip service paid to the ‘development of North’ Sri Lanka government claims to be interested in, they added.
Meanwhile, Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka minister and brother of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during the meeting twice thanked the Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Suresh Premachandran, Saravanabavan and Sumanthiran for attending DDM held in Jaffna Secretariat conference hall from Wednesday morning till evening, sources in Jaffna said.
The TNA parliamentarians later told local media that they had stressed on the immediate need to resettle the families evicted by Sri Lanka Army from its High Security Zone in Valikaamam North and they had discussed the issue deeply in the meeting.
Jaffna district TNA parliamentarians had abstained from attending meetings of the above nature held by Sri Lanka government in the past.
Suresh Premachandran had issued a message to local media earlier on TNA’s intention of attending Sri Lanka government meetings in the future.
Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka Minister Douglas Devananda attended the meeting presided by Basil Rajapaksa.
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