{"id":66539,"date":"2017-05-31T15:35:57","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T22:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=66539"},"modified":"2017-05-31T15:35:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T22:35:57","slug":"no-teeth-for-proposed-developmnet-agency-news-item-sunday-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/05\/31\/no-teeth-for-proposed-developmnet-agency-news-item-sunday-times\/","title":{"rendered":"NO TEETH FOR PROPOSED DEVELOPMNET AGENCY \u00a0News Item Sunday Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Agency for development was a brain child of the Prime Minister to bypass ministers who may \u00a0have some hidden agenda ,when they want to initiate development plans .We have come across such problem in Galle Harbour.During the last government a Saudi Investor obtained a portion of Galle Harbour to develop as a Yacht Building and Repair Yard .Whole process took three years due to to bureaucratic attitude of SLPA .Finally cabinet approved and AG too.When the land took over same government messed up with Musilm community and the investor bolted away .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Government changed and we approached SLPA for permission to re commence the\u00a0 project .Submitted the bank gurantee and the SLPA did not allow us proceed .Politicians\u00a0 intervened\u00a0 and turned down our request ,They wanted to hand over the whole harbour to some Indians who had ulterior motives .Their plan was to build hotels inside the harbour in the pretext of Marina Development .We went Southern development minister who advised SLPA to allow us to recommence on the grounds that it is a marina related industry .Minister turned down and we went to CECM chaired by Prime Minster .PM clearly instructed the officers to allow us .Again Politics and a cricket playing clique turned down the instructions. Minister of Agency for Development\u00a0 personally got involved but the minister refused.<\/p>\n

Then Port Minister goes to cabinet and asks for permission to use Swiss Challenge method of awarding a\u00a0 contract to the same Indian Company . Agency for development was\u00a0 instructed to facilitate Swiss Challenge and nothing moved so far . SLPA officers claim that Indians are not capable for developing the project ,With Hambantota with plans for Chinese entry in Trinco for Indians ,there would have been a public outcry.<\/p>\n

Now the Galle Port overgrown with grass and the buildings in pour area corroding SLPA id helopless .<\/p>\n

Minister has been removed and new minister has come .Hopefully he will have better approach and Consult the Agency for Development to allow us to proceed .Galle Port would have been buzzling with business today if we could start few years back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera Agency for development was a brain child of the Prime Minister to bypass ministers who may \u00a0have some hidden agenda ,when they want to initiate development plans .We have come across such problem in Galle Harbour.During the last government a Saudi Investor obtained a portion of Galle Harbour to develop as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}