SLFP, UNP committees meet to work out common agenda

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 September 2006, 12:56 GMT]
The first meeting of the two committees appointed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) was held Friday morning at the parliamentary complex located in Jayawardhanapura in Colombo to work out a common national agenda on seven prioritized areas with the ethnic conflict being the most important, political sources said.

Prime Minister Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake is the leader of the SLFP committee and Mr.Karu Jayasuriya, Deputy Leader of the UNP is the leader of UNP committee. Other members of the SLFP committee are: - Ministers Messrs Maithiripala Sirisena, Nimal Sripala de Silva, Mangala Samaraweera, and Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. Other members of the UNP committee are: - Messrs G.L.Peiris, Milinda Morogoda, Ravi Karunanayake, John Amaratunge, Rukman Senanayake and Malik Samarawickrema.

However Ministers Mangala Samaraweera and Jeyaraj Fernandopulle did not attend the first meeting held Friday morning as they have gone abroad with President Mahinda Rajapakse to attend NAM conference in Havana, Cuba and UN annual general meeting in New York in USA.

These committees have been appointed by the two parties following the invitation extended to UNP leadership to join his government to work out a common agenda to resolve the ethnic conflict. UNP leadership accepted the President invitation without any condition.