By Walter Jayawardhana

Like our army saved the Tamil people from terrorism they will also rebuild their settlements with irrigation tanks , irrigation ducts and roads in a better standard than they ever existed before said Uthuru Wasanthaya Project chairman parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa at a ceremony handing over 101 heavy construction equipment to the army to rebuild the Northern Province infrastructure easing the rapid development and resettlement of the Internally Displaced People in government welfare camps.

The equipment imported from the PeopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Republic of China on the previous day under the sponsorship of the Ambassador for the PeopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Republic of China Yang Xiuping also marked the 60th anniversary of China. The Galle Face Green where the ceremony was held was decked with the yellow star spangled red flags of China.

Ambassador Yang Xiuping symbolically handed over an ignition key of a unit to Basil Rajapaksa who then handed it over to the Commander of the Army Jagath Jayasuriya.

The 101 units worth Rupees 2353 million was hailed by the government as the largest stock of machinery imported by the government in Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s history.

The equipment will be used by the Army Engineering Corps to build the Northern Province infrastructure rapidly to quicken the resettlement process of the IDPƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s and immediately engage them productively in the countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s overall development .

ChinaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Ambassador Yang Xiuping pointed out that this clearly displays to the world the strong friendly ties between the two countries. She said she is upbeat of being able to supply this machinery at a time when her country was celebrating its 60th National Day. She said such efforts on her countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s behalf to Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s effort to rebuild will continue in the future.