Devananda meets Tamil parties

Suraj A. Bandara

Traditional Industries and Small Enterprises Minister and EPDP leader Douglas Devananda has come to a common understanding with Tamil political parties to represent the interests of the Tamil community.

The Minister for the second time met key Tamil politicians last week.

They discussed a possible way for in overcoming their differences and to function together to safeguard the Tamils without causing harm to other communities.

A spokesman for the EPDP said that the Minister met these key politicians to get all Tamil parties together to find ways to solve problems faced by the Tamil community.

"This meeting is not to form another coalition or alliance. "There is no political agenda behind this meeting," the Minister said.

The Tamil United Liberation Front Leader Anandasangaree, the Eelams People's Revolutionary Front (Vardarajah Group) , Eelam People's Democratic Party leader, PLOTE, EROS, TELO (Sabharathnam Fraction), Mano Ganeshans Democratics People's Front, and Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulihal (TMVP) were the parties that met the EPDP leader. Though each party has different political ideologies, this union is not to create another alliance, Devananda said.

This is solely aimed at finding ways to help the Tamil community during times of difficulty.

Meanwhile, all up country Tamil Political parties met recently to find answers to the problems faced by the plantation community and redress their grievances in a common effort. A spokesman for the Ceylon Workers Congress told the Daily News that it is important to obtain consensus before the constitutional reforms.