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Tuesday, 13 August 2013 01:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Chairing a high powered, multi-stakeholder meeting including residents of Rathupaswala at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday, Rajapaksa gave several orders as part of resolving the crisis over contaminated ground water and alleged pollution by blue chip Dipped Products Plc’s subsidiary, Venigross Ltd. which employs 600 and manufactures medical gloves for export.
A statement from the President’s Office said:
After listening to detailed accounts from residents, factory representatives and other officials, the President offered the following solutions to help resolve the situation:
(1) The main priority of the authorities in this region will be to ensure that the people receive safe water.
(2) The Government Analyst’s Department will carry out testing of the water and issue a report.
(3) If the report reveals that the factory has operated in a wrongful manner, the factory will be shut down immediately.
(4) If the report reveals that the factory has operated within the regulations, the company will be given a stipulated amount of reasonable time to relocate to a BOI zone.
In addition to these specific aspects, President Rajapaksa also stated that any new factory in Sri Lanka must be constructed within a BOI zone to prevent such problems in the future.
The residents and the factory representatives, under the guidance of the President, agreed to allow the factory to make use of the items that have already been produced prior to ceasing operations and to allow the factory administration to function until the report is published.
“The residents expressed satisfaction at the agreements reached and agreed to work with officials to help resolve the problem. President Rajapaksa urged the citizens to refrain from taking the law into their own hands if a problem arises in the future and requested all parties to try their utmost to resolve crises through discussion,” the statement from the President’s Office added.
For yesterday’s meeting chaired by the President, Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Dinesh Gunawardena, Minister of Social Services Felix Perera, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Gampaha district parliamentarians, Western Provincial Council members, senior military officials and several other high-ranking Government officials were present at the discussion.
The communiqué, however, didn’t comment on the widely condemned killing of three youth during the clashes between the Army and protesters at Weliweriya over the standoff or whether any discussions took place or decisions were made.
The Army is conducting an investigation into the killing separately whilst the Opposition and civil society groups have called for an impartial and/or international probe. Yesterday’s meeting and announcement of measures also come ahead of a massive protest planned for tomorrow in Fort against the Weliweriya debacle.
