How Ranil is on lookout about gold found in North ....
and how it vanished!
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasingha yesterday (09) expressed in parliament as to what happened to the 40 kilos of gold found in the North by the army during the previous regime. The Premier also commented on a stock of close upon 150 kilogrammes of gold items that were deposited in banks managed by the LTTE Organisation, gold items that had been mortgaged and also hidden at various places in the North. The Prime Minister went on to say that necklaces, ear rings,
bracelets, rings and pendants that have been discovered by the army and that 30 kilogrammes of that had been handed over to the Central Bank and also that another 80 kilos are still in the possession of the army. He further exclaimed that the gold items found by the army has been valued by the National Gem and Jewellery Authority and that the stock of gold handed over to the Central Bank is estimated at a value of over Rs. 13 crores and 18 lakhs.When the time came for MPs to question the Prime Minister directly, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa of the JVP posed him a question regarding the above facts revealed by him. On this occasion, Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, Chief Organiser of the Opposition who intervened and asked questions from the Prime Minister and he had this to say:
"You stated that the army found 150 kilos of gold. 80 kilos are in the possession of the army while 30 kilos are in the Central Bank. What happened to the balance 40 kilos?"
Prime Minister: "There's a contradiction here. Shall look into this matter and inform the parliament".
Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayaka: "This gold belongs to people in that area .... it was property they had mortgaged to the bank. Are steps being taken to hand over this gold to those people?"
Prime Minister: "We can look into this matter. There are Tamil MPs who know about this, in parliament. Mr. Sarath Fonseka is in the assembly. President Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa at this time is in the assembly".
In this instance some MPs of the UPFA began to make some disturbance.
Prime Minister: "Why are you'll upset? Of course the other MPs don't make a stir like this. Shall look into as to what happened to this 40 kilos of gold".
Information -- Ajith Alahakoon, Kushan Subasingha