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CEB, SLPA reject JVP post-tsunami rehabilitation offer
JVP trade unions have charged that two key government institutions have rejected their offers to help post-tsunami rehabilitation work amidst indication that the rift between the JVP and the SLFP -- main coalition partners in the UPFA government -- is deepening.

Ranjan Lal, the JVP union leader at the Ceylon Electricity Board, said they had volunteered to send 500 of their members to help in reconstruction work but CEB authorities had rejected the offer.

He also said the CEB authorities also stopped 50 union members from going to Batticaloa for relief work after permission was granted. Chandra Sri Gamage, the JVP union leader at the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, said the JVP wanted to send 1000 volunteers to Galle to clear the harbour, but authorities had rejected the offer.

The JVP union leaders said they believed politics was behind the rejection of their offers. On Tuesday the JVP's Central Committee met and discussed a proposal taken by the party's politburo where Party leader Somawansa Amarasinghe said the idea of the meeting was to take 'stern action' if the SLFP continued to act on its own, disregarding the agreements reached between the two parties.

Yesterday the JVP boycotted a meeting organized by the Constitutional Affairs Ministry to discuss the tsunami rehabilitation. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse was among those who addressed the meeting.
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