‘Colombo hasn’t spent a cent on Jaffna’s development’- GA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2003, 16:34 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government did not allocate a red cent for rehabilitation and development in Jaffna for the last two years said the Government Agent for Jaffna, Mr. S Pathmanathan, addressing a consultation meeting Saturday on rehabilitation and development work planned for 2004 in the Thenmaradchi Division of the northern peninsula. The GA said that all rehabilitation and development work in the peninsula in the last two years was carried out with international aid.

“The situation that prevails in the northeast now is something of which we never had any previous experience. Therefore government officials (in the northeast) are in a quandary. They do not know how to deal with this situation. The war, in a sense, has not completely ceased. Peace has not been achieved fully. The journey to peace is on. But we do not know where it is leading us to”, the GA observed.

He said that the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government established the SHIRN jointly and identified the needs of the people.

“But we got none of the aid promised by the international community in Oslo and Tokyo. The donor countries are not keen to provide funds for Jaffna now. They are asking us to strengthen civil society organisations. This is why the LTTE’s proposal for the Interim Self Governing Authority is important at this juncture”, the GA said.

“There are no contractors in Jaffna acceptable to the World Bank. Twenty years of war has destroyed all of them. This is a serious problem. Civil servants in Jaffna have stagnated without any scope for progress during the war. Therefore we cannot expect much from them”, he added.

Mr. Pathmanathan said that the NorthEast Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project had spent 350 million rupees and the NorthEast Emergency Rehabilitation Project spent 160 million on Rehabilitation and development in Jaffna in the last two years.

The political division of the Liberation Tigers in Jaffna arranged the meeting at the Chavakachcheri Hindu College Saturday.

The deputy head of the LTTE’s political division in Jaffna, Mr. K. Semmanan, the LTTE’s political officer in charge of the Thenmaradchi Division, Mr. S. Kalaivaanan, the Director of Planning, Jaffna District, Mr. P. Sunderampillai, Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance MP, Mr. N. Raviraj and heads of Sri Lanka government departments took part in the consultation meeting.

The Divisional Secretary for Thenmaradchi, Mr. S. Sreenivasan, presided.