EPDP ignores its own pledge

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The EPDP in a statement released yesterday said that its members, elected to office at the local government polls held in the Jaffna Peninsula in January, would not take oaths unless an allocation of three million rupees was made for each local bodies to function.

The EPDP also laid down the condition that there should be no interference by the authorities in the running of the local bodies. The group made this clear in a statement it put out yesterday in the Jaffna press.

However, EPDP does not seem to always practice what it proclaims.

But in what is a direct contradiction of this statement, the EPDP's chairman designate for the Vadamaradchi North-west Pradeshiya Sabah (PS), Selliah Sundaramoorthy, took oaths before a Justice of the Peace yesterday, said sources in Jaffna.

The local Divisional Secretary for the area, S. Srinivasan, Pradeshiya Sabah Secretary K. Mahendran and Jeyaraj a member of the PLOTE also took part in the function.

Selliah Sundaramoorthy was an active member of other militant groups before joining the EPDP.