21 July 2018 12:02 pm
However, he said Ven. Medagoda Abayatissa Thera had requested MPs not to support these bills as it was a great sin.
"These two bills were long pending, even from the time of Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1972. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga appointed a presidential commission in 1999 and obtained recommendations in 2001,” he said.
However, the minister said these bills needed to be introduced forthwith because several Buddhist monks had acted indecently during the recent past.
“It was reported that a novice monk of the Ruhunu University had been stripped and beaten by fellow monks. In another incident, a police sergeant had been killed by a Buddhist monk,” he said. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)