Conveying his felicitations to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who was sworn in as premier on Friday, October 26, Jaffna parliamentarian and EPDP leader Douglas Devananda said that he will work harder than before, under the present atmosphere of peace, for resolving the problems of the Tamils. As an ally of the former Rajapaksa administration he had worked hard and played a significant role in striving to solve the Tamils’ issues, he further stated in a media release.
Those who got the mandate of the Tamils on the undertaking to solve their problems have not fulfilled their assurance.
A political solution to their problems, release of their political prisoners, retrieving lands and the issue of those who disappeared, employment opportunities to their educated youth and livelihood opportunities continue to remain their major problems, Devananda stated.
The TNA had failed in its duty to guide the government in the right path to resolve these issues and the Tamils had no alternative other than getting to the streets to wage their protests and struggles. The Tamils who were affected in the three-decade long war are now further burdened with the rising cost of living and the EPDP believes that the new government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa would offer solutions to the Tamils’ Problems, Devananda further said adding that the EPDP would do everything within its political powers to achieve these.
He has also stated that he believed that the new government would hold polls to the Provincial Councils on the due dates and create an atmosphere for people’s representatives to administer them.