By Yohan Perera
Shan Rajamanikam, the ruling party Tamil politician who was to steer the party in the East, has embarked on a mission to fill a development gap between the Tamil and Muslims in the East, particularly in the Batticaloa District.
Mr. Rajamanikam told Daily Mirror that the areas where Tamils live in the East had not been developed when compared with areas populated by Muslims in the province. In this context he said that the Muslim politicians had been extremely resourceful and had carried out extensive lobbying for allocation of funds for the development of their areas unlike the Tamil politicians. Tamil politicians, both in the government and opposition, had failed to understand the ground situation and had not maintained a close rapport with the government and had not pushed the government to develop areas where the population was predominantly Tamil. Citing an example of this, he said that the Northern Provincial Council had not touched millions of rupees that had been allocated by the government and had not cooperated with the state in developing the province. The members of the Northern Provincial Council are occupied with other activities such as lobbying for a political solution to the national issue instead of focusing on development,” he said.