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Prime Minister to tour North as part of initiative to push development projects
Rs 2 bn worth of development projects in the North and East are to be fast tracked.
Accordingly, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the subject line Minister of Northern Development, will tour the North from February 14-16 along with nine other cabinet Ministers under whom various projects have already been completed.
The Prime Minister’s secretary, Saman Ekanayake told the Sunday Times that, in addition, the Premier will chair District Development Committee (DDC) meetings in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Jaffna and Mannar. Local parliamentarians and relevant stakeholders in proposed social empowerment and infrastructure development projects will also attend.
The premier is also scheduled to open the newly built state-of- the-art accident ward at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and chair meetings with local political representatives on the proposed to develop the Palaly airport and Kankesanthurai (KKS) harbour.
Early this month, the cabinet approved Rs 1,950 mn to develop Palaly airport.
The Prime Minister will also be visiting Mannar and Mullaitivu to oversee projects that are currently underway and hand over compensation to those who were affected by the recent floods.
These initiatives come in the wake of another cabinet paper that was approved last week to accelerate the resettlement of Internally Displaced People (IDPs). The Government is to build 4,750 brick houses in the first phase of this project.