May 17, Colombo: First Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial council Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan yesterday said that he is ready to give leadership to exploit the new found freedom, democracy and peace to develop the province.

Speaking soon after taking oaths as the Chief Minister before President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat, Mr. Chandrakanthan said “This victory was not achieved on a bed of roses. We had to face a lot of challenges on our march to democracy. We had to face various setbacks and criticism. We believe the people in the East have given us a mandate to give up the armed struggle and choose the way of democracy.”

“The Eastern Province is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious province. Hence it is unique from other provinces. The newly elected members of the EPC have identified the priorities of the province and its people,” he added.

Seventeen UPFA members of the TMVP took oaths before President Rajapaksa. M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, Yawwar Saly and M. Subair of the Hizbullah group were not present.