Attempts to create rifts within Buddhist chapters to be probed: PM

1 August 2016 07:16 am

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that the government would appoint a presidential commission to investigate whether anyone had tried to create schisms within the various Buddhist chapters.

He said so at a religious ceremony at Kadigamuwa Raja Maha Vihare.

"We will appoint a presidential commission to determine whether anyone tried to create divisions within the Malwatte Chapter," he said.

“A person could be stripped of his civic rights if he is found to have worked towards a division within the chapters of the Maha Sangha." he said.

He said he had suggested a clause in the proposed new constitution to prohibit the division within the Sangha chapters and to make such an act as an offence. (Yohan Perera)