Defence budget passed with 105 vote majority

Uditha Kumarasinghe, Irangika Range and Sandasen Marasinghe

KOTTE: The vote on the Defence, Public Security, Law and Order Ministry was passed with a majority of 105 votes. There were 19 votes in favour.

The motion to extend the Emergency Regulations by another one month was passed with a majority of 100 votes. The JVP and the NFF voted in favour.

The TNA asked for a division and voted against. The UNP and the SLMC members were absent.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told Parliament yesterday that the Government will carry out its task until terrorism is wiped out from the country.

The Premier speaking at the vote on the Defence, Public Security and Law and Order Ministry said measures have been taken to eradicate terrorism for so many years.

Various Ceasefire Agreements were signed from time to time when the LTTE was militarily weakened. “However, the present Government is not ready to make the same mistakes committed by previous Governments.

The Government will continue with its military activities until LTTE terrorism is eradicated from this country,” he said. “We appeal to all political parties to extend their support towards the moves taken by the Government to put a complete end to terrorism.” The Prime Minister said the Government has a clear position to defeat terrorism. Terrorism has caused harm to the lives of the innocent people. All possible measures should be taken to eliminate terrorism.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power with the sole intention of finding a lasting solution to this problem without shedding any blood.

But the LTTE attempted to kill our Security Forces personnel and close down the Mavilaru anicut as well. Therefore, the Government had to take a strong decision due to the Mavilaru issue.

The Government launched military operations against the LTTE.

“We were able to liberate the entire Eastern Province due to attempts made by our heroic Armed Forces. We have to capture a few areas in the Jaffna Peninsula. We should give our blessings to our valiant war heroes in their task to eradicate terrorism.”

He said defeating terrorism is the biggest problem faced by the country. The Defence Ministry is taking all possible measures to eliminate terrorism.

The budget has also allocated huge amounts of money to eradicate terrorism.

We all should be united irrespective of political differences to defeat terrorism.