Kiriella adamant Dinesh should have been present

The Government cannot be expected to go out of their way all the time to allow the joint opposition to move adjournment motions as and when they want, Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella said today.

Mr. Kiriella was referring to the statement made by Joint Opposition Parliamentary Group Leader Dinesh Gunawardane that they will request the government allow the adjournment debate on Health Ministry incident today (23). Mr. Gunawardene was not present to move the debate yesterday evening though he requested for it earlier in the morning.

The Leader of the House said the government decided to end the debate on the regulations under the Excise Ordinance at 4.30 pm following the request of Mr Gunawardane for an adjournment debate on the Health Ministry incident. “Usually if a member wants to move an adjournment motion he has to request for a slot before 12 noon the previous day.

However an MP can move such a motion if it is about an urgent matter provided a minimum of twenty MPs request for it. I agreed to give Mr Gunawardane the chance to move the motion without even calling for 20 MPs to approve it. Mr Gunawardane was not present to move the motion even after us giving him some leeway in the matter, so now the joint opposition cannot blame us if they are not given the chance to move the motion today,” he said.

He charged that Mr Gunawardene was not even present in the Parliamentary premises to move the debate as he was meeting with senior members of the GMOA at the time.

“We don’t know whether we can allow the joint opposition to move the adjournment debate today as there is other business to attend to in the House including condolence votes,” he added.

MP Ananda Kumarasiri who was at the chair at the time sessions were adjourned explained that he had requested the Secretary General Dammika Dassanayake to inform Mr Gunawardane to move the debate.

“I requested the Secretary General to inform him to move the debate before I adjourn proceedings for the day,” he said. He said the debate on the regulations under the Excise Ordinance had ended as all MPs who were due to speak had finished their speeches at that time. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)