Overall resurgence in Lanka under President’s leadership - Minister Sirisena

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

There will be an overall resurgence of the country during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Minister Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday.

Addressing a news briefing of the UPFA, Minister Sirisena said Sri Lanka has been maintaining cooperation with foreign countries in a friendly manner.

Therefore the Government has taken the decision to hold the 15th SAARC Summit in Colombo considering various benefits which Sri Lanka can obtain such as gaining foreign recognition, he added. Minister Sirisena said it was unfortunate that the present UNP leadership criticises the decision to hold SAARC in Sri Lanka.

“According to Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe the expenditure for SAARC is a curse without considering the outcomes of the SAARC summit,” Minister Sirisena said.

The present leadership has failed to unite even their 47 Parliamentarians, he added.

“People’s expectations of the North Central Province will become a reality since the Government has taken steps to repair 32 major tanks such as Kalawewa, Parakrama Samudraya, Vilachchiya.

The Government would spend Rs. 7,200 million on the project which will be commenced by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on August 18 in Polonnaruwa.”

Addressing the press briefing Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha said that an European Parliament Member Niranjan de Silva Deva-Aditya has rejected the ideas of some MEP delegation members.

“Many high rankers of the UNP have got UPFA membership since they are fed up with the party leadership. The election campaign is now in full swing while the UPFA has established 974 Election Offices in Sabaragamuwa and North Central Provinces,” Transport Minister Dallus Alahapperuma said.

A considerable number of UNP and JVP members are getting the membership of UPFA in Ratnapura and Kegalle districts due to many reasons especially the shortsighted decisions of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, he remarked.

“Ranil has taken steps to appoint Hasan Ali, a Muslim Congress member to the vacancy of UNP National List instead of appointing S.B. Dissanayake even though the latter is keen on entering Parliament for over one and half years from the National List of the party. But the party leadership has given a better place to Hasan Ali of Muslim Congress than UNP member S.B. Dissanayake,” Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said.