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President agrees on portfolio
President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Friday agreed to appoint Sarathchandra Rajakaruna as Minister for Disaster Management following weeks of bickering between her and the UNF Government over his portfolio.

The agreement was reached when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met President Kumaratunga at the Janadipathi Mandiraya for talks on current political developments.

The President had refused to swear-in the UNF MP saying that the subject came under her purview, and that she had every intention of retaining it.

The formula worked on Friday evening envisages Presidential Secretary Kusumsiri Balapatabendi and Prime Minister's Secretary Bradman Weerakoon working out functions that could be retained by the President and functions that would come under the purview of the new Minister.Under proposed legislation -- a Disaster Counter-measures Bill -- there will be a council headed by the President to deal with both disaster preparedness and disaster management.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said there were several defects in the draft bill prepared by the previous PA administration and his government would look into these aspects.

He told President Kumaratunga that if there were any projects which the President was interested in under the proposed Ministry, the UNF government was willing to hand them over to her.

Several other issues were also taken up during the discussions including current issues such as the controversial import of radio equipment for the LTTE's Voice of Tigers radio station, and the High Security Zones in Jaffna.

The Premier's response to the President's earlier request for an explanation on the VoT equipment was received a few hours before the two leaders met. The response was not discussed, but a spokesman for the President said it was unlikely that the President would release a statement on it.

Referring to the discussion on the HSZs, the spokesman said the President was satisfied that the Prime Minister was unaware of the detailed security report of the Army that was delivered via the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to the LTTE. The report now raised questions of a breach of national security as well as become an issue in peace talks with the LTTE.

The two leaders also agreed to institutionalise their meetings by agreeing to confer every fortnight - on a Thursday - or during every week when Parliament is not sitting.

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