UDA’s Army opposes police!

 Tuesday, 10 June 2014 

Many retired officers of the Army, now serving at the Urban Development Authority, are up in arms against the appointment of senior DIG Anura Senanayake as its chairman, reports say.

Since he fears the appointment will create unnecessary clashes in the UDA in the face of this opposition, defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who is in charge of the UDA, is postponing the appointing, say internal sources of the UDA.

In the forefront of retired Army officers who are opposed to DIG Senanayake is Brig. Saman Fernando, presently security manager at the UDA.

The reason for their enmity is that DIG Senanayake is investigating complaints that Brig. Fernando is extorting money from businessmen by using the name of the defence secretary. Addicted to casinos, Brig. Fernando obtains money from businessmen every day, at Rs. 30,000 each.

Since he prefers members of the Army than the police, the defence secretary is thinking twice about appointing Senanayake as the UDA chairman. As a solution, he is considering appointing Senanayake as the governor of the northern province, but the senior DIG is not agreeable to that suggestion. On the instructions of the defence secretary, DIG Senanayake was in South Korea recently, following a crash course on urban development planning.