Time to develop country - President

All these years we have been speaking politics, about winning elections and about preferential votes but now the time has come for us to develop the country and its society so that our children were safe to live in it.

It was as a father of three children and as the father of all the children in this country that I wish to say that the country should be freed of the drug menace and the time has now come for us to see that our children tread that safe path in a country where righteousness was the norm, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said addressing a public meeting at Handugala on Saturday held in connection with reopening a tea factory that was closed for two decades.

The time has also come to end corruption and waste and to start operations against the underworld gangs to liberate the younger generation, the future citizens of this country from this menace as well. In this process we may be creating enemies but we are not afraid to do it and we seek your cooperation to make these operations successful, the President said.

We have to start this operation against drugs and crime in the same manner that we ended the war with the humanitarian operations of the past two and a half years and the time has come for us to stop thinking about ourselves and think about the country's future.

Leaders without foresight had given a part of the country to the terrorists by a document but today it had been liberated from the terrorists and united so that the young men and women of Kilinochchi or those of Katuwana could live without fear President Rajapaksa noted.