AVURUDU LOTTERY AT CARLTON HOUSE

President wants to give Avurudu presents at Carlton House
   Cash notes finished
   Gives lottery tickets

     The President Mahinda Rajapaksha was at Carlton House, Tangalla at the auspicious time of partaking in meals and transacting business. There were thousands of villagers who had gathered at Carlton House from early hours of the morning to see the President who commenced transacting business after partaking of the Avurudu meal at the auspicious hour. The crowd formed a queue and was walking towards the President and everyone received a gift of a crispy cash note. But unanticipatedly the villagers present had exceeded the normal number present on other such occasions. The cash notes in  President's possession was soon dwindling and by 7 in the morning all were finished. However the President observed that there were another thousand or so left in the queue. He then spoke to a relative whom he spotted and requested him to bring some cash notes he may have in his possession and had distributed those cash notes too. Subsequent to that the President soon found that there were no more cash notes left to give as gifts to another three or four thousand still left in the queue. 

     At that moment the President having given instructions for the crowd to participate in a meal at the table and then after a short while for them to call them had been asking himself 'Now what to do?' And then looking around in contemplation had spotted an officer who was connected to the lottery trade and had told him of his predicament when he had responded saying, "President Sir, I have a bundle of Development Lottery tickets in my vehicle...... if you want, I can give those to you." 

   "Okay, okay, bring those, bring those, somebody will win a big prize from those no?" said the President. After getting the tickets down, he had given the tickets as Avurudu presents to about three thousand villagers who were still left. However it is still so far not reported whether any of them had claimed any cash prizes.

A collection of photos of the festival conducted at Carlton House on Avurudu Day can be seen here.