8 June 2022 04:59 pm
Ratata Hetak CSR programme today requested the speaker to take action to uplift the grade of the Sri Lanka Passport while enabling people to travel to at least 190 countries without a VISA.
The organiser of the Ratata Hetak programme, Sarath Kalugamage, said a letter in this regard was sent to the speaker.
"According to the International Ratings on Passports, Sri Lanka's passport stands at the lowest position. "As an Asian country, Japanese can travel to 190 countries without a visa, but, can we do so without a visa," the letter said.
Kalugamage mentioned that he strongly emphasizes that the political authorities of this country are fully responsible for this. No government that has come to power since independence has paid attention to this. The reason for this is that they have the power. They use their diplomatic passports to fulfill their travel needs.
"In such a backdrop, it has become inevitable that Sri Lankans with a lot of skills are utterly disappointed. They cannot stay or leave the country. The Speaker, can play a key role in this matter than the Foreign Minister," he said.
In general, almost every country pays due attention to the request of a speaker, as Kalugamage mentioned in his letter.
The Speaker has the courtesy to invite all ambassadors to Parliament for a meeting and to make an open request, both verbally and in writing, to all Sri Lankans to have the opportunity to travel and work without a visa, he said.
Therefore, as a civil activist, I kindly request that you focus your attention on doing that for the people of the country, Kalugamage said. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)