PM Modi's Lanka visit: Vesak Day celebrations on second day's agenda

Colombo [Sri Lanka], May 12 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, will be attending the International Vesak Day celebrations and interact with leading Buddhist spiritual leaders, scholars and theologians, along with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He will also deliver a celebratory address at the Bandarnaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BIMCH) on the occasion of International Vesak Day. Prime Minister Modi will also address the Indian origin Tamil community at Norwood Grounds. The Prime Minister will then inaugurate the 15-bed Dickoya Hospital, a base hospital in the same province which has been built with Indian grant. He will then meet representatives of the Ceylon Workers' Congress (TBC). Thereafter, the Prime Minister will also hold a meeting with representatives of the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TBC). The Prime Minister will then arrive at the President's Palace for a lunch hosted by the Sri Lankan President. Prime Minister Modi will also visit Sri Dalada Maligawa Temple (The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic), where he will sign the visitor's book and interact with Mahanayaks. Just before returning to India, the Prime Minister will meet Sri Lankan Leader of Opposition at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo. The Prime Minister will also visit the hilly regions of Sri Lanka that host tea plantations. India will give an aid of $2.6 billion for the hospital. Sri Lanka's hilly regions home Indian Tamil people who work in tea plantains. Upon his arrival in Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Modi met his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena. He also met former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. (ANI)