COLOMBO: The chief minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province has placed a rather unusual barrier to development by blocking the use of local resources for new industries, saying that the centre should tap other resources.

Speaking at a meeting on economic development of Jaffna district on Friday, , C. V. Wigneswaran said that local resources should “not” be used for setting up industries in the province, but imported from outside.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was present on the occasion.

The chief minister’s latest condition comes a day after he reiterated allegations of “genocide” of Tamils at a programme organised in Mulliwaikal to mark the eight anniversary of the end of the war against Tamil separatists.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2017