Jaffna GA takes measures for adequate Navarathri supplies
The Government Agent of Jaffna has taken measures to ensure Navarathri festive supplies are available sufficiently in the Jaffna peninsula this year, according to Colombo Tamil daily Thinakkural.
Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna, K. Ganesh has requested priority for container ships carrying festive supplies, Thinakkural added. Items arriving are to be distributed through Multipurpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) outlets across the peninsula.
Navarathri festival begins on Sep 30th and continues for nine days.
[Savouries served at a Navarathri festival – file pic HA]
Thinakkural of Sep 26th, said people of the peninsula paid substantially higher prices in recent years for Groundnuts (Kadalai), Black gram (uzhunthu), Mung bean (payaru), Jaggery (sakkarai), rice flakes (aval), candied sugar (katkanndu), Raw Rice (pachchai arisi), raisins (munthirikai vaththal) and other Navarathri festive spiritual items for pooja and prayers due to shortages, regularly and particularly during Navarathri.
Situation of finding adequate supplies of Navarathri items in Vanni is further grim than the peninsula, according to media reports.
Convoys carrying essential items into Vanni for the displaced civilians have been facing delays and denials for several weeks, at the Sri Lanka military check point in Omanthai.
On Friday Sep 26th, a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report said, the first convoy of food supplies since 16 September will travel under the UN flag to areas held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north in the next few days, according to Neil Buhne, the UN Resident Representative in Sri Lanka.
