Colombo shuns Eastern province TNA parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 October 2010, 17:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has failed to invite Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Eastern Province parliamentarians to the Eastern Provincial Development review meeting held Monday in the Naval Headquarters auditorium in Trincomalee presided by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, P. Selvarasa, Batticaloa distirct TNA parliamentarian said. Shunning the representatives democratically elected by the people to participate in decision making meetings by Sri Lanka government reveals how very much it discriminates the Tamils, he added.

Though it had earlier been announced that TNA parliamentarians are to be invited to the above meeting Sri Lanka government at the last minute had directed its officials not to send invitations to them, Selvarasa said.

It is the elected representatives who are duty bound to convey the problems and needs of Eastern Province people who had lost everything due to war and displacement to the government. The government, advised by certain Tamil persons in SL government who seek political power, has kept the TNA parliamentarians out of the meetings meant to develop Eastern Province and no true development can take place without the participation of their elected representatives, the MP added.

Sri Lanka government’s duplicity is exposed by its refusal to invite the TNA parliamentarians of Eastern Province to the meetings of importance to the people of Eastern Province, he said.

The Eastern Provincial Development review meeting was held Monday in the auditorium of the Naval Headquarters in Trincomalee presided by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa. His secretary Lalith Weeratunge, Defense Ministry Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera accompanied the President to Trincomalee to attend the meeting.

Eastern Province Governor Mohan Wijewickrema, Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, provincial ministers and councilors, district government heads and officers participated in the Monday meeting.