‘Hope India will support us at UN’ meet: Sri Lankan minister at Thiruvananthapuram

Submitted by Walter Jayawardhana

“India has to take a decision and we hope that the country is noticing the efforts taken by Sri Lanka for restoring human rights.”

He was in Kerala to unveil the statue of Buddha at the Sree Buddha College of Engineering at Nooranad. “We had opportunity to spread Buddhism to many countries. But Buddhism and Hinduism, the two major religions practised in our country, are India’s gift to our people,” he said.

He said the government was taking a lot of efforts to revive the country in terms of education and infrastructure. The Sri Lankan government has begun efforts to decentralize administration and district secretaries were being posted for this purpose

. He added that Sri Lanka expects India to extend assistance as the Tamil community that have their roots in India were treated well in his country. “All major political parties representing the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, excluding TNA, are part of the government,” he said.

He added that both the governments have jointly undertaken a power project that is expected to generate 500MW electricity at Trincomalee in Sri Lanka.

Thiruvananthapuram: Sri Lanka expects India to vote in favour of it in the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Sri Lankan minister for public administration and home affairs W D John Seneviratne said here on Saturday.

On the side-lines of a personal visit to the state, he said that Sri Lanka was taking a lot of efforts to restore human rights in the country and expressed hope that India would vote in favour of Sri Lanka next time. “Though it is a matter to be decided by India, we hope that India is noticing the efforts taken by Sri Lanka in restoring the human rights in Sri Lanka,” he said.

He said that unlike during the times of domestic tension, the government was taking a lot of efforts to revive the country in terms of education and infrastructure. The Sri Lankan government has undertaken efforts to decentralise administration and district secretaries were being posted as part of this.

He said that Sri Lanka expects India to extent assistance to the country as the Tamil community that have their roots in India were being well-treated by his country. “All major political parties representing the Tamil community in Sri Lanka excluding the TNA are part of the government,” he said.

He added that both the governments have jointly undertaken a power project that is expected to generate 500 MW electricity, at Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. “The relation between India and Sri Lanka has been a long-standing one, and the bond between the two countries is getting stronger,” he said.

He said that Sri Lanka and Kerala has many similarities in many areas, and the strengthening of the ties between the two places was very easy and necessary.

He was on his visit to the state to unveil the statue of Buddha at the Sree Buddha College of Engineering at Nooranad. “We had opportunity to spread Buddhism to many other countries, but Buddhism and Hinduism, which are two major religions practised in our country, were the gift of India to us,” he said. (Courtesy Times of India)