A three member Special Task Force for north

On April 30, the cabinet of Ministers passed a memorandum submitted by President Mahinda Rajapakse to appoint a Special Task Force as a preliminary step to appoint an interim council for the development of the Northern Province.

Minister of Information and Media, cabinet spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa announced this yesterday (02).

The cabinet paper says that this Special Task Force will oversee development initiatives in districts in the Northern Province until the operation to liberate the people of north from the LTTE hold will be finished and the Northern Provincial Council will be set up.

This body will provide advice to all ministries, department and statutory bodies of the state and will help coordinate operations in the said area.

It will also oversee resettlement and rehabilitation work, facilitate coordination between the executive and the Consultative Board proposed by the All Party Representative Committee and where necessary provide proposals and ideas to the Governor of the Northern Province.

The Special Task Force comprises of Minister Douglas Devananda, the Chairman, Resettlement and Disaster Relief Minister Rishard Bathiudeen and MP Basil Rajapaksa.

Political analysts say that this move expresses the government's will to hold election for Eastern Provincial Council, to set up an interim council for the Northern Province and to solve the ethnic problem within a unitary framework.