2ND LEAD (CORRECTION)

Namal Rajapaksa’s men monopolize Jaffna-Poonakari boat service

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 05:40 GMT]
The new boat service between Kurunakar and Poonakari in the North which is to be inaugurated Sunday by Namal Rajapaksa, son of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is to be entirely serviced by boats owned by him, sources in Jaffna said. Colombo government and the powerful men from South are exploiting all possible sources of income in Jaffna peninsula, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented.



The boat service, being a lucrative source of income as people travelling to Vanni are expected to prefer it than travel through A9 land route in consideration of the duration of the journey, is to be monopolized by men of Namal Rajapaksa, the sources added.

Douglas Devananda, , a minister in Rajapaksa's cabinet, who mints money in the A9 land route travel between Jaffna and Colombo from the four luxury air-conditioned coaches operating in his men’s names, had earlier shown interest in beginning the said boat service with the motive of making more money. However, he was sidelined later, during the preliminary work, as Namal Rajapaksa was targeting the income of the service. Mr. Devananda was invited to take part in the inauguration of the boat service.