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Don’t obstruct development in North and East, Tamil politicos tell TNA
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has been asked by two Tamil politicians not to stand in the way of development initiatives undertaken by the Government in the North and the East. The politicians are Douglas Devananda, Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, and Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan.
“The actions of the LTTE have caused the Tamils to lose what we already had, physically as well as politically,” Minister Devananda said yesterday during a debate in Parliament on votes for the Ministry of Economic Development. “Although the TNA was not directly involved in the violence unleashed by the LTTE, their political speeches have always been negative and loaded with mistrust.”
Three decades of war denied the North and the East the economic development the rest of the country was enjoying, the Minister said. Since the end of the war, the North and the East have benefited from a number of development programmes.
Deputy Minister Muralitharan told the TNA not to “divide and rule.” “The Government has appointed a Parliamentary Select Committee to find solutions to the problems of the Tamils. Come and participate in the process,” he said.
The Deputy Minister’s remarks came in response to comments from TNA MP M. Sumanthiran, who said the Divineguma Bill could not be implemented in the North because it did not have the Northern Provincial Council’s full endorsement.
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