TMVP leader says:

Eastern people free now

M.P. Muttiah

Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) will extend unconditional support to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Election, TMVP leader and Chief Minister Eastern Provincial Council Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan said.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Mahaweli Centre, he said his party would assure that President Mahinda Rajapaksa gets the majority of votes in the province.

The Chief Minister said that he was fully satisfied at the talks held with Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa MP and Education Minister Susil Premjayantha. There were some administrative problems which both sides agreed to sort them out in the future, he added. Chandrakanthan added that whether it was the 13th or 17th Amendment was not a question, but the people must be able to solve their problems themselves.

He said after many years the people of Eastern Province live in freedom.

“It was President Mahinda Rajapaksa who brought normalcy to the province.

“The credit should go to him for establishing a Provincial Council for the East,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the people of Eastern Province as well as his party had full confidence in the President as the only leader who brought peace to them.

Answering a question on the lands issue the Chief Minister said the Central Government never acquired land and without the knowledge of the Provincial Council it could not do so, he added.

Agricultural Development and Agricultural Services Development Minister and SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said some countries in the West that armed and supported the LTTE were behind UNF and JVP. He said that ninety nine percent foreign VIPs who visited Sri Lanka during the war wanted the government to stop it.

They were in full support of the LTTE. Therefore, it was clear that the UNP-JVP union was a Western conspiracy, he said. Transport Minister Dulles Alahapperuma and Minister Duminda Dissanayake also attended.