Essential items must move to North & East without restrictions – President [Friday, June 9, 2006 - 9.20 GMT]

President Rajapaksa instructed government officials to ensure that the daily activities of the civilians in the North and East are not hampered and essential items to North and East move without restrictions.

The Secretary to the President Mr. Lalith Weeratunga made this clear at a high-powered meeting held June 7, at the Reconstruction and Development Agency [ RADA ] convened by Mr. Saliya Wickramasuriya, its Chief Operating Officer.

The meeting was held to discuss issues with key development partners and representatives of the UN, World Bank, ADB and IMF on security arrangements which could lead to the disruption of reconstruction and development activities of the North and East.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Miguel Bermeo Country Director, UN, expressed the need to have a clear and consistent procedure and a mechanism for solving problems pertaining to the delivery of goods such as cement, which are used as material for the construction of houses for tsunami affected people in the North and East.              

The Secretary to the President reiterated the government's position that these moves were introduced only as a temporary measure and stated that the transport of material such as cement and steel will not be restricted provided that the amounts needed to be transported are indicated in advance to the Government.

Although precautionary measures are necessary to ensure that construction material sent to the North and East is not used for non reconstruction activities, Mr. Weeratunga said that work pertaining to reconstruction and development must go on and it is the further responsibility of the Government Agents to ensure that all tsunami housing programs are completed by the year end.    

“Restriction of movements of material needed for construction purposes are not necessary per se; but it is important that a rational breakdown of requirements instead of an ad hock dispatching of construction material is needed to streamline the application process and to maintain accountability and transparency by all sides”, said Lalith Weeratunga.

Mr. Sunil Sirisena Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Defence who attended the meeting informed the gathering that it may be a security risk to provide blanket approval for large consignments; therefore it is necessary that project wise details are given in order to permit such movements.

Mr. Sirisena further said that the Security personnel manning the checkpoints will not have the same awareness about the large-scale projects that are implemented by donor agencies and INGOs. Therefore he expressed the need for a breakdown of the requirements of these projects so that personnel at the security check points will feel comfortable in releasing them.

Mr. Jeevan Thyagaraja, Executive Director of Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies stressed the importance of bridging the communication gulf so that it could avoid unnecessary confrontations. 

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Last Updated Date: June 9, 2006 -6.20 GMT