Archives

by Ananda Kannangara in Uragasmanhandiya

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing an election rally at Uragasmanhandiya on Wednesday stressed the importance of setting up of a Women's Authority and said that this authority will directly help to solve the day to day problems of entire women in this country.

"It is saddening to note that President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga being a female Head of the State for seven years had not taken proper measures to solve various problems related to women in this country," he said.

"Our women face numerous harassment today. But no proper laws were implemented by the Government to curb them. Therefore we will set up this Authority under the name of "Kantha Divi Piyasa".

Wickremesinghe said "It is a pity to say that the country's economy has fallen into zero due to mismanagement by the Government. As a result not only the prices of commodity items the employment problem too has gone up."

"The President should not be silent, she must take immediate action to rectify the present situation. But if she remains silent further we are there to take the steering wheel. The verdict is on your hand," he said.

"Under a UNP Government there are several areas to be focussed. Among them the garment sector, tourism industry, hotel sector, setting up of new industries in collaboration with foreign countries, small scale business enterprises, plantation and agriculture are some of the areas that are immediately to be developed," he said.

Wickremesinghe also stressed the need of developing the activities of the Katunayake Airport and the Colombo Port.

Wickremesinghe said "Tens of thousands of innocent civilians in the North and East have become victimised due to the war. The war has spread to a number of areas today.

But during the UNP regime the LTTEers were confined only to the city of Jaffna. "When this Government came the situation became worst due to non-handling the war in a proper manner. Now the LTTE is active in many areas. So we want to eliminate this.

"Now the politics have entered the Armed Forces too. Some transfers within the Armed Forces were done on political influences. This is a wrong method. Politics should not be crept in to the Armed Forces. The promotions of security personnel must be done on merit.

"I hope the Independent Commissions which the UNP is going to implement will solve many problems in the country."

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager