The President made these remarks while commencing the renovation activities of Mailaddy Fisheries harbour yesterday. The President laid the foundation for the Mailaddy fisheries harbour, which will be renovated at a cost of Rs 400 million aiming to streamline the fishing activities in the Jaffna area especially in the Kankesanthurai area.
The President further said that he has given necessary instructions to the Army Commander and Jaffna Army Commander to take necessary measure in this regard.The President added that 88 per cent of land used for security purposes, had already been released by now. The balance of only 12% remaining lands have to be released. The President while highlighting the uselessness of war and armed conflicts said that nothing can be achieved by engaging in armed conflicts.
“The war destroyed not only human lives but also humanity. The war destroys humanity first before destroying other human and physical resources. Therefor nothing can be achieved by armed conflicts or by war,” he noted.
“You have faced immense hardship from the war and it is not an exemption whether you are in North or South since all of us had been undergoing severe hardships during the terror period. Terrorism claimed many valuable lives regardless the ethnicity ie; whether Sinhala Tamil or Muslim. Valuable Tamil political leaders such as Amirthalingam, Neelam Thiruchelvam and moreover our best Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and many others were lost to the country because of terrorism” he said.
Speaking on the Mailaddy fisheries harbour, the President said the late leader S.J.V. Chelvanayagam had taken initiatives to start the Mailaddy fisheries harbour since then one third of the fisheries production in Jaffna was supplied from the area until the lifestyle of Jaffna was affected by terrorism. It can be reported that late President R. Premadasa has also contributed to the development of the fisheries activities based on the harbour in 1980s, the President said.
President Sirisena noted that the freedom for speech and expression had been established now and therefore everyone can level any allegation even against the President of the country now.“When paying attention to social media it can be seen how certain people sling mud at me through social media. If such things happened during the last regime, the persons who involved in these attacks would have been under six feet” he added.
During the last three and half years,the Government had taken a significant measures to uplift the standard of people. The President questioned whether one could travel to the North freely before 2015.Speaking on the development of Jaffna, the President said a significant amount of funds was allocated from every budget annually for Jaffna’s development.”However it can be seen sometimes that the development rate in the North is somewhat low than expected,”he said.
“A Presidential Task Force has been appointed to look in the development of the Northern area. The task force is scheduled to meet next week and I invite every political leadership to take part in it without looking through political glasses. The task force will identify the need of the area and make a priority list while observing the on-going activities,” he said.
