News
Chief govt. whip reprimands SJB MPs for disrupting parliament proceedings to get TV coverage
By Saman Indrajith
Chief Government Whip Highways Minister Johnston Fernando on Thursday lashed out at SJB MPs including Colombo District MP S.M. Marikkar for deliberately obstructing parliamentary process and wasting public funds.
“The Opposition MPs should learn to act according to the Standing Orders. They raise frivolous issues and try to attract media attention. They do that by obstructing the House proceedings. It is already 11.35 am, but they keep raising points of order. They are wasting time allocated for the debate on the Presidential Commission report on the Easter Sunday carnage.”
Fernando said so when MP Marikkar raising a point of order claimed that the Minister was slandering the Opposition MPs on the pretext of instructing it to behave in the House. “Minister Fernando is finding fault with the MPs for raising questions. He does so on the pretext of urging the MPs to maintain dignity and decorum in the House. He is not a person who is in a position to lecture us on discipline. He is the one who broke chairs and hurled a copy of the Bible in Parliament. Now he is acting like a Saint.”
Minister Fernando: “That is a blatant lie. I never threw the Bible. There was no Bible in the entire Parliament complex. It was very recently a copy of the Bible was brought to Parliament by MP Harin Fernando. Until then there was not a single copy of the Bible here. You are not only disrupting the debate but also denigrating the Bible. He should not be allowed to denigrate a religion in the House.”
Accepting deposits from political parties and independent groups who intend to contest the forthcoming Local Authorities Election ended at 12noon today [19].
Deposits were accepted at respective District Secretariats from 3rd March 2025.
The Elections Commission has announced that the deadline for the accepting of nominations for the LA poll is set to conclude at 12:00 noon tomorrow (20).
It has been reported that the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon has appeared before the Matara Magistrate’s Court this morning (19),
The former IGP had been evading arrest after the Matara Magistrate’s court had ordered his arrest regarding a shooting incident that took place in front of the W15 Hotel Pelena, Weligama, Matara, in 2023.
The government has begun recovering funds obtained by former Lands and Land Development, Environment and Wildlife Resources Minister SM Chandrasena for the Janatha Lanka Chilli Marketing Limited (JLCML), which he headed, Parliament was informed yesterday.
Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation Minister Namal Karunaratne said that as the Chairman of JLCML, Chandrasena had obtained a loan of Rs. 1,275,000 from the Mihintale Govijana Seva Bank in 2001.
The principal of the loan had not been repaid until the end of last year. “After we came to power, we demanded that the loan be settled. Then, we discovered that the interest on the loan had not been paid for the past 24 years, and attempts had been made to have the loan written off. We stopped that and are now in the process of recovering the interest of Rs. 1,975,233 on the loan,” Karunaratne said.
Karunaratne added that JLCML was registered as a company with the Registrar of Companies on March 21, 2001. As Chairman of the company, Chandrasena requested a loan of Rs. 10 million on April 19, 2001, for the purpose of purchasing chillies from farmers in 12 farmer colonies in the Mihintale Agrarian Service area.
The request was approved by the Mihintale Agrarian Service Committee on the same day and referred to the Anuradhapura District Agrarian Operations Committee, which approved it on April 23, 2001. However, the Agriculture Development Commissioner General recommended that a loan of Rs. 1.2 million would suffice for this purpose. JLCML took the loan and failed to repay it until the end of last year. When the matter was raised, the principal was paid, and we are now in the process of recovering the interest that was not paid for the past 24 years,” Karunaratne added.
By Saman Indrajith
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