New chairman appointed by President

By Chathuri Dissanayake

The Tea Board crisis finally came to an end with a much deserved victory to all the industry stake holders after its controversial chairman B. A. C. Abeywardane was removed from the post but he still refuses to budge.

Plantations Industries Minister Milroy Fernando appointed Lalith Hettiarachchi as the new chairman. But when he went to assume duties at the Tea Board, Abeywardane made another attempt to ‘guard his crown’ by forcibly entering the building and sitting at the chairman’s office, not letting his ‘successor’ take over.

“I work according to the directives of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. I cannot go against his orders. He instructed me to remove the existing chairman and appoint a new one and I have done so. If he (Abeywardane) can discuss the issue with the president directly and solve the issue he has that is fine,” said Minister Fernando.

The industry responded positively to the latest developments. “The Tea Board is back to normal. Our battle has brought the desired results. We won! The chairman had to finally give in when he was faced with a united front of the industry,” said a member of the Board of directors at the Tea Board who declined to be named.

The minister himself addressed the staff of the Tea Board on Friday and made a formal request to support the new chairman. An emergency board meeting was called for the members of the Tea Board Director Board where several issues including the ‘suspension’ of services of the Tea Board Director General H. Hemaratne were discussed.