Local Government polls:

Govt assured of massive victory - Minister

External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris claimed that the Government will get a definite massive victory at the upcoming Local Government elections, despite the charges made by the Opposition regarding the Local Government elections being held under the previous system.

The Minister further said that a considerable period of time is needed to initiate some essential measures such as laying a new foundation to hold elections under the new system, setting up of new electorate boundaries and training the officials and these cannot be accomplished within a short period of six weeks.

Minister Peiris made these remarks addressing the Tangalle Electorate Organization (Asana Bala Mandala) meeting of SLFP held in the Tangalle Urban Council premises. Namal Rajapaksa MP, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, J C Ranga MP also attended the meeting.

“It was the FBI organization of America which identified the LTTE as the deadliest terrorism on earth. Hence the people of this country will never forget the incident of bringing peace to the country by defeating such a horrific organization,” the Minister said.

In 2013, the Queen of England along with 53 Heads of State of Commonwealth countries will visit Hambantota to attend a Summit called CHOGM which is held every two years. CHOGM is a summit where all the leaders of Commonwealth countries meet for discussion and make important decisions about their future endeavour.

This summit would directly affect your day-to-day lives. Infrastructure, hotels, roads would be essential to hold this summit.” the Minister said.

Namal Rajapaksa, MP said that Hambantota is not the only area to which attention should be focused. We feel that unemployment is a key issue at present, all over the world as well as in Sri Lanka. Accordingly to my opinion, there are several practical issues in providing employment.

“There are millions employed in the public sector in Sri Lanka. We cannot make new recruitment to the public sector regardless of these people. Employment opportunities available in the country should be fairly distributed among other electorates too,” he said.

“We have laid a proper plan to be implemented in the future as a remedy for this issue. A giant program has been launched to provide employment opportunities through the apparel industry in the fields or vocational trade and craftsmanship.”

Solutions to the unemployment problem in this area can be found in a few months through the implementation of this program jointly by the public and private sectors.