27 December 2016 05:23 pm
He requested him to at least present the agreement in Parliament so that the people would know its contents.
In a letter to the President, Mr. Handunnetti said the Government is morally bound to reveal the conditions stipulated in the agreement when state property was handed over to a foreign company and it was also the people's right to know because none of those involved in this transaction would be alive in 99 years.
He said this was a clear case of the government being responsible for the future generation as well and added that one reason for electing President Sirisena was to oppose the secret and illegal deals of the Rajapaksa regime and to take legal action against them.
“People had strongly objected to the handing over of state property and contracts to fraudsters by the previous regime. One of your main election slogans was to ensure transparency and corruption-free governance. But people and parliament are unaware of the agreement to hand over the Hambantota port with less than two weeks to do so. We do not know why these secret transactions were not considered as deals,” he said in the letter.
Mr. Handunnetti said the handing over of the Hambantota Port on a 99-year lease was a serious matter as it was an important sector in the national economy and national security. (Ajith Siriwardana)