2ND LEAD (CORRECTION)

Nirupama Rao to visit North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2010, 07:53 GMT]
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is to visit Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa in the North 30, 31 August in the context of Indian Foreign Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna's proposed visit to Sri Lanka late September, sources in Jaffna said. Nirupama Rao will inspect the progress of development projects, resettlement and rehabilitation activities in the North before meeting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians 1 March in Colombo. Sri Lanka government, keen to make a show of the 'Development of North' to international countries and India, is sending its ministers to North in haste in an effort to support its claims of achievements in the above mentioned matters, the sources added.

Sri Lanka minister Wimal Weerawanse is expected to be in Jaffna 31 August while Sri Lanka Disaster Management minister Fowzi and Social Service minister Felix Perera are expected on 12 September.

Meanwhile, Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka Economic Development Minister and a brother of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa, will be holding a 'Development Assessment' meeting in Jaffna 3 September which several Sri Lanka ministers are expected to attend.

Sri Lanka ministers who had been eager to invade Jaffna during the past Presidential, General and Jaffna Municipal Council elections to give promises had returned to Colombo once the elections were over. Now they are on a similar mission to Jaffna, political observers in Jaffna said.