Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said today his party would come out strong against the government because the people complained that the opposition was ineffective in its campaign against the soaring cost of living.

He gave this assurance when traders of the Delkanda weekly fair met him at the UNP headquarters Sirikotha.

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The parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has in its inquiries found that two politically influential mill owners in the Polonnaruwa district have defaulted on the repayment of loans amounting to Rs.300 million borrowed from a state bank, it is learnt.

The loans had been obtained to purchase paddy from farmers in the area. The Bank had eventually written off this amount as bad debt.

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In a fresh effort to secure a pardon for Rizana Nafeek who has been sentenced to death under Islamic sharia law in Saudi Arabia, a group of Sri Lankan MPs recently visited the victim infant’s grandparents, Foreign Employment Minister Dilan Perera said today.

Rizana was sentenced to death in February, 2005 under Sharia law for allegedly strangling to death this infant while bottle-feeding.

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Former Deputy Leader of UNP Karu Jayasuriya yesterday scoffed rumours that he is going to form a political party.

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The UNP charged today that the government’s recent pledge to implement the 13th Amendment plus was a ploy to hoodwink the international community.

Addressing a press conference, UNP Vice President Lakshman Kiriella said that the SLFP-led alliances opposed the 13th Amendments when it was introduced in 1987, but today, they had pledged to honour it.

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Former UNP organiser of Nawalapitiya and two others who were indicted for attempted murder of the Chairman of the SLFP branch in Nawalapitiya, Nuwara Paksha Gedara Amarasuriya during the 2001 General Election, were discharged by the Kandy High Court Judge W. C. Pushpamalie on January 19, and the second accused was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

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UNP MP Buddhika Pathirana whose party membership was suspended after being at logger heads with the party hierarchy had come to a truce with the party, General Secretary Tissa Aattanayake said today.

Mr. Attanayake told a news conference today that he has had a discussion with Mr. Pathirana and had come to an agreement. He said this agreement should be approved by the working committee of the party. Mr. Attanayake however did not elaborate on the agreement.

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The Mahanayake of the Asgiriya Chapter the Most Ven. Udugama Sri Buddharakkitha Thera said yesterday political leaders in the country should discourage Buddhist monks from taking to politics.

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The election of the leader in a political party is generally heralded with celebrations and hope. But in the UNP the recent election of the leader was accompanied by riots that cost the party and its loyalists millions of losses in property damages, exacerbating the internal differences, plunging the party further into hopelessness.

For the past 17 years the UNP has been wanting in unity in its rank and file. The seniors in the party have been urging the activists to shed petty differences and unite for the sake of the party but despite all those efforts, the party has been through its worst period of defections.

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The election which was held last year to elect new officer Bearers of the UNP was a mistake as it would lead to unwanted divisions in the party, General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said today.

Mr. Attanayake told a news conference today that his effort to convince the party members to select the office bearers through a consensus failed at the last minutes. “I made a last effort just five minutes before the poll but none of the persons who contested for the posts were willing to withdraw from the race,” he said.

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