ECT issue a ploy to sell WCT : Pahiyangala Thero

COLOMBO (News1st): The issue surrounding the East Container Terminal had been stirred to give away the West Container Terminal, Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara Thero has said. "Isn't the Western terminal a national asset?" the chairman of the Surakimu Sri Lanka Organization queried on Wednesday. He added that the government pretended to give away the East Container Terminal and later reversed the move to create the impression that it would retain national resources. "...in hindsight they had only done so in order to hand over the Western Terminal," Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara Thero noted. K.D. Lal Kantha, the president of the National Trade Union Centre, also echoed similar concerns. "The people of this country have no desire to witness even an inch of our assets being handed over to multinational companies," he noted. Wasantha Samarasinghe, a politburo member of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, insisted that a struggle would be carried out to protect the West Container Terminal as well. "These resources belong to the nation," he pointed out.