Unwanted by all, Hula expelled by Thondaman too!

 Friday, 10 January 2014

Subject minister Arumugam Thondaman has expelled deputy chairman of the National Livestock Development Board Lakshman Hulugalle, formerly director general of the Media Centre for National Security, now a bane for the Rajapaksas and all others in the government, who now want to see the back of him, say ministry sources. 

Many got to know for the first time that Hulugalle was the deputy chairman of the NLDB after he was expelled by the minister. It was none other than Thondaman who had appointed him to that position, in consideration of Hulugalle’s close links with the Defence Secretary. It was through Hulugalle that Thodaman had got police transfers and appointments made to suit his needs, for which purpose he had appointed Hulugalle to the position forcibly.

In return for the dirty work he got done from Hulugalle, Thondaman had given a free hand for him to dealing with the tenders of NLDB. Accordingly, Hulugalle had awarded all those tenders to two of his female cronies. After Hulugalle was written off from the good books of the Rajapaksas, Thondaman too had rejected him, with the intention of taking the NLDB back under his control.

Recently, Thondaman had summoned a group of Tamil businessmen to his ministry and told them that Hulugalle had lost his position after he tried to tap the mobile phone of the Defence Secretary. After he was expelled from the position, Thondaman said, he had received personal calls from the President and the Defence Secretary, asking him to expel Hulugalle from the NLDB.