“Politicians have started to play roles of IGP and Attorney General”: MR

Friday, 13 March 2015 01:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that under the present regime politicians have started to play the roles of the IGP and the Attorney General and are saying things that should be said by the IGP or the Attorney General. He made this statement while talking to the media during a visit he made to the Mihintale Raja Maha Viharaya yesterday. “If this is good governance, then gods bless this country. Today politicians are starting to say things which should either be said by the IGP or Attorney General, as today politicians are the ones announcing who will be remanded and who will be arrested and within how many days,” Rajapaksa said. Commenting further, he also objected to the Government decision to halt certain development projects launched under his administration. “All development activities have stopped. I don’t know why as there is no reason for it. The halting of these development projects means that Sri Lankan workers and engineers working on these projects will lose their jobs and the cash flow reaching the villages will stop as a result of this. “Projects such as the ‘Colombo Port City’ cannot be built for another 100-200 years, and the development of the country will go backwards by 200 years if these projects are stopped now. These development activities should continue. However, if the administration is not good, then the ruler should be removed. That is a correct way and a decision by the people,” Rajapaksa added.

Modi-Mahinda meet in the offing

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet former President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit to Sri Lanka beginning today. Efforts are on to arrange a meeting in Colombo, political sources have told The Hindu newspaper. Refraining from commenting on a possible meeting, a source in the former President’s office said Rajapaksa was scheduled to visit Colombo on Friday. After his former Cabinet colleague Maithripala Sirisena unseated him from the presidency in the elections in January, Rajapaksa has been spending most of his time at his ancestral home at Tangalle in Hambantota along the southern coast. Asked about a possible meeting at a recent press conference in New Delhi, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said: “I do not have anything on that yet.” Modi will meet former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Leader of the Opposition Nimal Siripala de Silva and senior leaders of political parties representing the minority Tamils and Muslims. (The Hindu)