Modi to visit Jaffna, address Sri Lankan Parliament

Colombo, March 5

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit former LTTE-stronghold Jaffna in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-dominated north and address Parliament during his three-day visit to the country next week.

“The Indian Prime Minister will visit Jaffna and later address the Sri Lankan parliament too,” Sri Lankan Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told mediapersons today.

Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister and the second head of state after Britain’s Premier David Cameron to visit Jaffna. Cameron visited Jaffna in November 2013.

India has undertaken infrastructure development projects including building of 50,000 homes in former conflict zones. Modi will also be the fourth Indian Premier after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai to address Sri Lankan Parliament. The last time an Indian Prime Minister addressed Lankan Parliament was in 1979 when then Desai visited the country.

During his Sri Lanka visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in more than 25 years, Modi will arrive in Colombo on March 13 and apart from Jaffna, he will also visit the sacred city of Anuradhapura, a holy site for the Buddhists.

The visit comes within a month of new Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s India trip last month that saw the two countries sign a civil nuclear pact. — PTI