By Saman Indrajith

The second session of the Ninth Parliament would commence with a two-day adjournment debate on the government’s Policy Statement, beginning tomorrow at 1 pm, following its delivery by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today, Leader of the House Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said yesterday.

The first session of the Ninth Parliament had recorded gains for democracy in the country despite the effects of the pandemic obstructing the proceedings from time to time, the Minister said.

The first session started on 20 Aug, 2020 ended on 31 Dec. 2021 with the prorogation of Parliament by the President.

During the first session, 840 questions were raised by government and Opposition MPs for oral answers and 731 of them were answered. Of those answered questions 73 percent of answers were for questions raised by the Opposition MPs. It was a record number if compared with statistics of the recent past, the Minister said, adding that the percentage of questions answered during the period from 2015 to 2020 was only 52 percent.

Minister Gunawardena said that on a proposal by him three special sitting days had been allocated in 2021 to answer the questions of MPs.

During the period of the first session of the Ninth Parliament, the government had allocated the opportunity for the MPs to raise questions at the time of the adjournment and both government and Opposition MPs raised 42 questions. As at the end of the first session of Ninth Parliament, a total number of 80 motions had been taken up for debate at the time of the adjournment of the House. In 2021 alone there had been 47 adjournment debates.

During the same period, party leaders had been given the opportunity to raise questions by making special statements on matters of national importance as per the provisions of the Standing Orders 27 (2) and they made 85 such statements. The government had responded to 76 such questions.

In 2021, arrangements were made for the public to meet their MPs at the parliamentary complex; seven rooms on the ground floor of the parliamentary complex had been allocated for that purpose, the Minister said.

During the first session, the Committee on Public Accounts had held 33 meetings while the Committee on Public Enterprises held 37 meetings and the Committee on Public Finance held 36 meetings.

Reports of the meetings had been presented to the House and posted on the parliament official web site for the public to download and peruse, the Minister said.