Grama Niladharis ordered to campaign for SLFP’s ‘Nil Rella’

The SLFP has directed Grama Niladharis to participate in its ‘Nil Rella’ membership drive which was to commence this week, the UNP charged yesterday. UNP Media Spokesman Gayantha Karunathillaka, MP, produced a letter, at a news conference in Colombo, which he said had been sent by the Bentara-Elpitiya SLFP Organiser Geetha Kumarasinghe to Grama Niladharis, in her electorate,
asking them to go campaigning from house to house when the ‘Nil Rella’ was held from March 28 to April 4.

They had also been told to be present at an SLFP meeting scheduled to be held yesterday, he said adding that the letter, which had been copied to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ministers Basil Rajapaksa and Maithripala Srisena, stated that the membership drive was being organised on the advice of the President. Karunathillake noted that the SLFP, by its actions, had shown scant disregard for the Establishment Code, which prohibits public servants from doing political work. The government unethically scrapped the Independent Public Services, Elections, Police, Judicial Service and Bribery and Corruption Commissions which were established by the 17th Amendment, because it wanted to pursue its dictatorial agenda, the MP charged.