By Saman Indrajith

The Opposition MPs in Parliament yesterday demanded that Finance Ministry Secretary K. M. Mahinda Siriwardana be summoned before the Parliamentary Privilege Committee for allegedly conniving with the government MPs to deprive their Opposition counterparts of budgetary allocations.

At the commencement of businesses of the day, SLPP dissident MP Dayasiri Jayasekera said that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had allocated, from Budget 2024, Rs 11,250 million to 225 MPs for rural development activities.

“The President pledged to resume the decentralised budget programme and Rs 11,250 million was set aside. However, the MPs who voted against the government have not been given this,” he said.

Jayasekera said that the Finance Ministry usually sent letters to all MPs specifying how to spend the allocation. However, Opposition MPs had not received that letter. Instead, all District Secretaries and Provincial Governors had received a letter from Finance Ministry Secretary K. M. Mahinda Siriwardana on how to utilise the funds, he said.

Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe said the Finance Ministry Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana had not breached privileges of any MP. He asked whether the Opposition MPs who had voted against Budget 2024 had any moral right to ask for funds allocated from it.

Chief Opposition Whip Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella said the Opposition MPs were not allowed to submit their proposals to the District Coordinating Committees for the development activities in their electorates. “I asked the District Coordinating Committee whether I can submit proposals, but I was told that we cannot,” Kiriella said.

MP Jayasekera said that it was stupid for Minister Semasinghe to state MPs who had voted against the Budget 2024 had no moral right to ask for the allocations because those allocations are meant for people and rural development.

The Speaker asked the MPs to meet the relevant Minister and have the matter sorted out.