By IANS,
Colombo : Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has directed his sports minister to cancel the musical shows scheduled in Kandy and Hambantota areas as fringe events for the upcoming Cricket World Cup and instead utilise that money for flood relief operations.
Over 1.2 million people in 18 districts of Sri Lanka have been affected by the second round of floods within two months.
The two musical shows have been planned as fringe events for the upcoming Cricket World Cup-2011, being co-hosted by Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, Colombo Page news website reported Tuesday.
The order is only for the state-sponsored events and not for the shows organized by the private media institutions, the government has told the local media.
Both Kandy and Hambantota are venues for the World Cup matches.