EPDP Leader and Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister Douglas Devananda said that he would forego his cabinet portfolio to contest the Northern Provincial Council elections, due later this year, as the Chief Ministerial candidate.
Responding to a query from The Island, at a media conference held at the Government Information Department yesterday (30), Devananda said that he would contest as the Chief Ministerial candidate at the NPC election scheduled for September.
But, according to earlier media reports, President Mahinda
Rajapaksa is not willing to release Minister Devananda from the cabinet of Ministers to contest the Provincial Council.
However, there was some speculation that former LTTE arms procurer Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP would contest for the chief minister post of NPC.
According to the government, the NPC polls have been delayed due to demining operations and the on-going resettlement projects.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already assured the international community that the NPC election would be held in September.
Following the end of the war, general, presidential elections and local government elections have been conducted in the North.
Meanwhile, Minister Devananda denied allegations made by the members of the TNA-controlled councils that the government had withdrawn more than Rs. 560 million allocated for development work in the local councils of the Northern Province controlled by the TNA. He said the allegations were politically motivated.
Of the 17 local councils in the North, 13 are controlled by the TNA.
Velvettithurai Urban Council member M. K. Sivajilingam recently told a local newspaper that the government did not want them to spend those funds for development work because government feared it would help them win the Provincial Council elections to be held. The government had not withdrawn the money from the councils where the pro-government EPDP was in control, he alleged.
However, the EPDP leader said that the funds withdrawn from them were those allocated for the last year’s development work and the Local Government Ministry had withdrawn only the unutilized funds.
Devananda said that it was the normal procedure and was not politically motivated.
