President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that he had faced far more serious situations than the prospect of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) winning the forthcoming first Northern Provincial Council polls scheduled for late September.
Addressing newspaper editors and electronic media heads at Temple Trees, President Rajapaksa said that the government was ready to cooperate with former judge C. V. Wigneswaran in case of the TNA’s victory at the September polls. The situation was not as bad as it looked, President Rajapaksa said, ruling out the devolution of police and land powers under any circumstance.
President Rajapaksa stressed that no one could pressure him to devolve police and land powers. When pointed out that India was relentlessly pushing for the implementation of the 13th Amendment and that Wigneswaran too, was on record as having said that he would fight for police and land powers, President Rajapaksa said that under no circumstances would he change his position. Turning towards Additional Foreign Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne, the President said that the External Affairs Ministry regularly advised him not to comment on specific queries which dealt with foreign governments.
Responding to a query, the President said that those TNA members, who had been in touch with the government, were ready to work for the betterment of the people of the Northern Province even without receiving nominations to contest the September polls.
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