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| Sunday, 16 March 2003 |
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Hakeem, Ashraff see eye-to-eye The two contending leaders of the Muslim community Minister Rauff Hakeem of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Ferial Ashraff MP National Unity Alliance (NUA) met President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to press for an independent delegation of the Muslims at the peace talks. This is seen as a welcome development by the Muslims in general and the Muslim political parties in particular. When the Sunday Observer asked for her comments on her decision to meet the President together with Minister Hakeem, Ms Ashraff said that "they had come together on this particular issue forgetting their political differences". At their meeting with the President they reiterated their position on independent delegation of the Muslims at the peace talks, she said. The President accepted their position and assured of her whole-hearted support and co-operation on the matter, Ms Ashraff further said. They have formed a North-East Muslim Parliamentarians' Forum and would seek the support of other Muslim political parties and political groups, she said. Minister Hakeem was not available for his comments but highly-placed SLMC sources said that their party always stood for political stability and unity among the North-East Muslims and their leader's meeting with the President together with the NUA leader was a move towards that end. ############# CMC Tax defaulters beware The Colombo Municipal Council's threat to take legal action against assessment tax defaulters and auction off movable properties to recover dues has paid immediate dividends, with the Council collecting Rs. 585 million in tax arrears in one week. According to Deputy Mayor Azath Salley, a large number of property owners have been defaulting in their tax payments, and a further Rs. 302 million is still being owed to the CMC as being arrears. In February, the Deputy Mayor, through newspaper advertisements warned property holders that the CMC would crack down on tax defaulters under the CMC Act and auction off their movable properties to recover the dues. "We have already given a time frame for tax defaulters to settle their unpaid taxes," said Salley, who was recently appointed as the official in charge of revenue collection by Colombo Mayor Prasanna Gunawardene. ############# Railways meet CPC fuel bill The Sri Lanka Railways settled a Rs. 1 million fuel bill with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation on Friday staving off a possible disruption of the rail service at the end of the month. Earlier, the CPC had threatened to stop supplying fuel to the railway department, by March 31, if the bills are not settled before that date. The Railways owes the CPC more than Rs. 3 million in unsettled fuel bills. The Rs.1 million was granted by the treasury. General Manager Railways Priyal de Silva told the 'Sunday Observer', that a further Rs. 280 million had to be paid to the CPC, before the end of March. He however assured that the train service will not disrupted for any reason and said that the government had pledged to continue the service without any burden to train commuters. He added that almost all the office trains were running on schedule and that speed limits had also been normalised. (DPL) ############# Former diplomat praises PM and Prabhakaran Onetime cabinet minister under the UNP government, former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Malaysia and Tamil leader, Selliah Rajadurai, who returned to the island recently from Malaysia, lauded both Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran for their political wisdom in deciding to resort to the negotiatory process to resolve the country's national problem. He said that the Government of Malaysia and her people have welcomed the peace process and look forward to its successful outcome. He said that all political parties should extend their unrestrained co-operation and support towards the success of the peace process, forgetting their political differences. He further said that he had always considered Prabhakaran as the sole representative of the Tamil people which is now unchallenged. |
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