Vasu, Cooray in fray for Colombo

Jayasinghe Premaratne and Ruwanthi Kariyawasam

COLOMBO: Democratic Left Front Leader Vasudeva Nanayakkara has been nominated as the United People's Freedom Alliance Mayoral candidate for the Colombo Municipal Council at the upcoming Local Government polls.

Vasudeva, a veteran political leader of the Leftist movement is a stalwart who fought to safeguard the rights of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities.

At the recently concluded Presidential Elections, he played a major role to ensure the victory of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Vasu has been actively supportive of the attempts made by the Government to find a lasting solution to the North-East crisis.

Vasu said he has been nominated as the Mayoral candidate with the full agreement of all constituent parties of the UPFA. He said a large number of UNP supporters and powerful UNPers who love peace and clean politics have extended their support to him.

"My sole intention is to fulfil the requirements of the people and function as another ordinary citizen in the City."

He told the Daily News that his prime objective as Mayor is to overcome the housing, health and economic problems faced by the low income groups living in shanties in Colombo and take measures to uplift their living conditions.

"I will provide all services rendered by the CMC to the public in a more systematic manner. In order to eliminate environment pollution, special attention will be focused on garbage management. Steps will also be taken to develop the water supply and drainage systems in the City," Vasu added.

A more effective administration system will be created within the CMC which will enable all to get their work done without giving any bribes, he said.

Meanwhile, the United National Party's Mayoral candidate for Colombo will be veteran politician Sirisena Cooray. He was out of the political scene for sometime, but played a key role in the last Presidential Election in support of the UNP candidate.