News
Hakeem points to sinister side in govt’s Rehabilitation Bill
By Saman Indrajith
SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem said yesterday that the Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill had been drafted in such a manner as to enable the government to detain those who went against its political agenda.
Participating in the second reading stage debate on the Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill, Hakim said the government had indicated its intentions to abuse this law meant for rehabilitation against the people who would not toe the government’s line.
“The cat jumped out of the bag when some government MPs spoke of their intention to pass this law. This bill has been determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In the recent history of this country, the Supreme Court has not determined a bill was unconstitutional in its entirety, other than this. When the bill was drafted some defence ministry persons had inserted certain sections to the bill to enable vague interpretation of the law to take in and detain persons in the name of rehabilitation whether these persons are drug addicts or not.
“Globally, including in Sri Lanka, it has been identified that the compulsory rehabilitation is counterproductive when it comes to drug rehabilitation. The rehabilitation of drug addicts should be done by the medical personnel, but here the new law provides for the military to rehabilitate them. Where in the world are drug addicts rehabilitated by the military? We pointed out these factors at the consultative committee stage and asked the committee not to rush into passing this without rectifying these discrepancies. There seems to be some haste by the government to pass this law.
“Substance abuse is a rampant problem in this country. This has to be addressed by a curative process not through a punitive process. This cannot be done by compulsory rehabilitation. How many times people who had been sent to Kandakadu and Senapura centres for rehabilitation, broke away and ran out. It is because the torture that takes place there and the hard labour that they are subjected to. The military personnel who run these centres are sometimes so insensitive and apply various punitive measures. That has to be regulated.”
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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