Jaffna TNA MPs to implement common development programme

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2004, 15:31 GMT]
Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Thursday decided to implement a common development programme in the Jaffna district with the funds allocated to them under the Decentralized Budget (DCB) by the central government.

Each MP gets 5 million rupees under the DCB. The decision was taken unanimously at a meeting held at the office of the Jaffna district political office of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thursday afternoon, TNA parliamentarian Mr.S.Gajendran said.

Parliamentarians Messrs Gajendran, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, S.Sivanesan, M.K.Eelaventhan, Mavai Senathirajah and Ms Pathmini Sithamparanathan attended the discussion. Mr. Solomon Cyril of the Jaffna District National resurgence Front also participated in the event, sources said.

TNA MPs in Jaffna district agreed to allocate one million rupees each for providing basic facilities to the internally displaced people now languishing in welfare centres and refugee camps as they are not allowed by the government to resettle in their houses and lands which are currently occupied by the Sri Lanka Army in the name of the security zones, sources said.

Several development projects such as providing drinking water facilities to Neduntheivu village and a vehicle to the people of Mandaitheivu, which is under the control of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to solve their transport difficulties, would be included in the common development programme.

Ms Pathmini Sithamparanathan, sole woman MP of the Jaffna district said she has decided to allocate funds for establishing vocational training centres at village level giving priority for women who lost their breadwinners, and lost limbs due to the two-decade-old war. Family members of those arrested by the Sri Lanka Army and later reported disappeared would also be given vocational training in these centres, Ms Sithamparanathan said.