Sirisena removes plaque bearing the names of former PM's and installs a new plaque with his name

The plaque which acknowledged the contribution of late Prime Minister, D.S. Senanayake and the opening of the renovated Iranamadu Tank in 1954 by then Agriculture Minister Dudley Senanayake has been completely destroyed and replaced with a plaque bearing the name of President Maithripala Sirisena.

The destroyed plaque

The construction of the Iranamadu tank which is regarded as the ‘Gem of Kilinochchi’, began in 1906 and was first used for irrigating fields in 1922.

The plaque bearing the name of the first Sri Lankan Prime Minister was preserved and respected even by the LTTE during the height of the war.

Reconstruction work which began in 2016, concluded in August 2018, costing Rs 2,130 million.

The tank was recently reconstructed under a project launched by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board along with the Asian Development Bank and was re-opened by President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday During reconstruction, the old plaque was completely destroyed and taken away to make room for a new plaque indicating President Maithripala’s Sirisena’s presence at the event on Friday.

V. Premakumar, Provincial Director (North) for the Irrigation Department, yesterday claimed that the department was planning to install the old memorial stone at a different location, but journalists who visited the area noticed the foundation stone had been destroyed.

The old plaque

The new plaque