President holds Tamil party responsible for development of Jaffna

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday emphasized that the parliamentarians elected from the major Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the Jaffna District also have responsibility to develop the District.

President at Nagadeepa  – Pic by Shantha Rathnayake

The President chaired the Jaffna District Progress Review meeting which reviewed the progress of the development projects so far launched by the Government within the District and the future development plans.

Addressing the review meeting, the President said the TNA is vested with more responsibility in the development of the Jaffna District and called on the TNA parliamentarians to utilize the funds granted by the government to develop their respective areas efficiently and not leave room for the funds to be returned to the Treasury.

President Rajapaksa revealed that he has received many complaints that grants given to Pradeshiya Sabha members for development in villages were not being properly used and in several instances these funds have been returned to the Treasury without utilizing.

He stressed that the return of grants provided to launch development projects for the benefit of the people amounts to an injustice to the people and asked the TNA parliamentarians to take more responsibility to work towards progress.

The President, delegating the responsibility to all the officials in the district to identify the needs of the public said there is no place for religious or caste differences within the government’s development policy.

He in depth reviewed the progress of projects launched by the government on behalf of 607,158 people from 185,955 families living within the Jaffna District.

Highlighting that he has noticed the development is only limited to the Jaffna City, the President asked the officials to identify the needs and extend the development programs to villages in the district as well.

Activities related to highways, agriculture, education, health, fisheries, transport, power sectors as well as work related to housing development and resettlement programs were reviewed at today’s progress meeting.Ministers Basil Rajapaksa, Douglas Devananda, Tissa Karalliyadde, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, S.B. Diss-anayake, Rajitha Senaratne, Deputy Minister Premalal Jayasekera, Governor of Northern Province Major General G.A. Chandrasiri, ministry secretaries, parliamentarians representing the Jaffna District, district and government officials, and commanders of security forces and the IGP participated in the meeting.