TOURISM MINISTER WANTS TAMIL DIASPORA TO VISIT SRILANKA..!!! BUT GR/DS IMPOSE DM-CLEARANCE AS SAME OLD UNWANTED RESTRICTIONS!! NO RECONCILIATIONS..!!!

Tamil Diaspora expected to participate in Nallur Kandasamy Kovil festivities – Mustapha .............................by Franklin R.Satyapalan

The Tamil Diaspora is expected to participate, in their thousands, in this year’s Nallur Kandasamy Kovil festivities, Tourism Promotion Minister Faizer Mustapha said.

He said that already over 180,000 members of the Tamil Diaspora had inquired about the facilities available to attend the festival.

Minister Mustapha, told hoteliers and media. at the Jaffna Kachcheri during a tour to spearhead the promotion of tourism and development of the hotel industry in the peninsula last weekend, that he was confident that members of the Tamil Diaspora will make use of the opportunity created by the elimination of terrorism and with the healing process taking place to come with their families to participate in the historic Kovil festivities and visit their kith and kin.

Also present during the briefing were the Assistant District Secretary of Jaffna Y. Paratharaman.

The Government was fully committed to providing all facilities so that this year’s ‘Nallur Kandasamy Kovil’ festival, which commences on July (27), would be celebrated on a grand scale after decades.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government is committed to assist all religions in their festivities, the Ministry of Tourism has been doing so for the last two years during the Esala Festival "we have provided water sanitation and other facilities. Then we saw the Nallur Festival as something significant for the Tamil community close and dear to their heart and decided to improve the facilities in and around the Kovil."

Air Force Commander Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke with the permission of the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, had granted clearance for the operation of direct charter flights by the Managing Director of Favourite Growth Capital and the Operator of Deccan Airlines Suren R. Mirchandani from Katunayake to Jaffna to transport the devotees.

The Minister visited the Nallur Kandasamy Kovil in the company of the delegation from the Tourism Ministry and Tourism Industry. He was accompanied by officials and participated in the religious activities and met the Chief Trustee Kuhathasan Mapana Mudaliyar.

"Until such time we re-establish a fully fledged Hotel School in Jaffna, we hope to provide training to the youths of Jaffna similar to what we have commenced in the Eastern Province. There are over 400 youths who are undergoing training".

"If each hotelier provides the names of four trainees, we can get the support of Deccan Airways to subsidise their airfares to Colombo to obtain the necessary basic training".

"We are doing all this especially because the President has advised us to focus on training rural youths to improve the quality of the service and standards in the Hotel Industry in Jaffna, to be on par with hotels in any other districts in the country.

"We will be with the hoteliers and look forward to work with them to bring in domestic tourists until such time we can develop Jaffna Peninsula in to a prime tourist destination".

"We will be marketing the Tourism Industry of Jaffna not only in Colombo, but overseas and are ready to take up the challenge and not turn back until we prove ourselves," he said.

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