President tells
inaugural UPFA polls rally in Anuradhapura:
Govt will win on performance, not promises
by Rasika SOMARATHNA in Anuradhapura
President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the inaugural UPFA Provincial
Council election rally yesterday afternoon in the sacred city of
Anuradhapura, told a mammoth gathering that his party does not need
promises to win the forthcoming polls as the government has won the
trust of the people by fulfilling all the promises it has given before.
The President said that he will always uphold the people’s trust and
would secure a future for the present generation and the unborn, in the
way he ended the war to take the nation forward towards prosperity.
Speaking to the mammoth crowd amidst applause, the President said his
government had delivered all the promises, to come before the people
today.
On the holding of elections the President said the Opposition was
making a lot of noise asking why the Government was going for polls.
He said his party when in Opposition acted quite contrary to this
stance and had always clamoured for polls.
He stressed that the Government was prepared to go before the people
to seek their verdict on its performance. The Government was confident
of its popularity. He said not only Sri Lankans, but also members of the
international community were welcome to see for themselves the massive
progress made since 2009.
The Government has nothing to hide. “In fact, this is the only
country which has forgiven terrorists and directed them towards
rehabilitation and social integration”.
He also said large-scale development activities continued to benefit
the people and more development schemes would emerge soon.
Pointing out some of the work carried out in the past the President
said that the Government had given jobs to over 90,000 graduates and has
taken steps to ensure that there were no more jobless graduates. Due to
the improvement in the road network, today the journey from Anuradhapura
to Colombo which had taken six hours earlier has been reduced to three,
he added.
In the recent past, the President said that the Government has
renovated 70 large scale tanks in the North Central Province at a cost
of Rs 7,000 million.
On the expansion of electricity, President Rajapaksa said that 90 per
cent of households now have power and this will reach 100 per cent in
the next 2-3 years. |