Mangala denies news item

PORTS, Aviation, Information and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, totally denied a news item which appeared on April 03, in a weekly news paper that a Cabinet Memorandum was due to be presented on April 06 for the sale of Jaya Container Terminal (JCT), in the Colombo Harbour.

Explaining the position, in a media communique the Minister stated that this same news paper in a lead news on March 27 reported that a Cabinet proposal to sell the Jaya Container Terminal, was under suspension due to opposition.

The news report mentioned Harry Jayawardena, the famous businessman who owns Aitkens Spence Company as the prospective buyer and that the JCT was the major revenue earner under the Port Authority.

That news item carried the Editor's note to say that the report was "based on facts revealed by the Port Authority Chairman Shalitha Wijesundera at a press conference.

In his Media Communique Minister Samaraweera categorically denied the news reports of both these dates as utterly false and emphasised that there is no proposal at all to privatize the JCT even in the future under the Freedom Alliance Government.

He added that all employees of the Ports Authority are well aware that there is no person by the name Shalitha Wijesundera as the Chairman or as a Director in the Ports Authority.

The media communique described the two false news reports as a palpable falsehood created by treacherous mediamen who use the names of irrelevant persons to sling mud and of whom the reading public should beware of.