A steady and adequate supply of food and other essentials to uncleared areas has been maintained, in the face of various sabotage attempts by the LTTE, which was trying to use food as a tool to discredit the Government, Essential Services Commissioner, S. B. Divarathne said yesterday.
The Tigers were even prepared to keep a community, which they have professed to protect, in starvation in order to realise their ulterior motive of discrediting the Government, he charged.
He stressed that the Government would keep supplying food to uncleared areas using all available routes, until security forces fully liberate the area. Addressing journalists in the company of Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa at the Information Department, Divarathne said 71000 metric tonnes of food and 15000 mt of other essentials had been delivered using land based routes to uncleared areas from August 2006 to January 2009.
Since then the hazardous journey through sea has been used to maintain adequate supplies to the remaining uncleared pockets in Mullaitivu, even though authorities are aware that a large portion of this is being plundered by the LTTE, he added. Divarathne explained that, when transporting food by sea, small boats had to be used to carry the goods ashore as Mullaitivu did not possess a harbour which could accommodate a big vessel.
He also said that 1000 mt of essentials had been supplied during the last two weeks. "In addition, the ship 'Bintan' which has a 500 mt capacity would be used to supply goods to uncleared areas on a weekly basis," he added. Also authorities have deployed vessel 'Green Ocean' to evacuate wounded civilians from Puttumattalan, Mullaitivu, which sets sail to the area thrice a week. Divarathne also said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had given him strict orders to maintain adequate supplies to the uncleared areas at all times.
Courtesy:Dailynews.lk