Rs. 772 million from president to Uva chief minister!

 Thursday, 26 June 2014

The president has ordered treasury secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara to immediately release an extra Rs. 772 million for development activities in Uva province, in addition to the standard allocation it receives along with other provinces.

The sum has been allocated to provide relief to the people in the province, whose provincial council is to be dissolved and elections held, in order to win over the voters. It has been decided to spend the entire allocation on Moneragala district. However, other UPFA politicians are unhappy and dejected that the president has given such preferential treatment to his son-in-law.

SLFP MPs of the district, whose relatives are hoping to contest at the upcoming Uva PC polls, have strongly objected to the president’s decision. Disregarding their objections, the president has given the order to release the money after considering a government opinion survey result that shows the popularity of chief minister Shashindra Rajapaska has declined considerably.

Exhume bodies of B’caloa mass grave!

 Thursday, 26 June 2014 

The courts have ordered police to exhume bodies next Tuesday from a mass grave believed to be of Muslims, who had been abducted and killed by the LTTE 24 years ago, at Kurukkalmadam in Batticaloa.

The investigation began after Muslims had continually complained that the bodies of 165 Muslims living at Kattankudy and adjoining areas, were abducted as they had been travelling in vehicles on Batticaloa-Kalmunai road in June 1990, killed and their bodies buried along the coastal area.

Request

Several relatives of the Muslims believed to have been murdered there have requested Kalavanchikudy police to help them to exhume their bodies and conduct their last rites according to Islamic traditions.

The coastal area in which the mass grave is located has been provided with police security, said police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana.

The commission investigating disappearances in the northern and eastern provinces, in its deliberations in Batticaloa district, has obtained statements from the relatives of persons believed to have been buried there.

After relatives made a similar request to exhume the bodies to allow them to conduct Islamic religious rites, the commission chairman and members visited the location for an observation.