Debate on Senior Ministers

3 January 2011 09:30 am

A debate would be conducted in Parliament next Friday on the subjects assigned to the Senior Ministers and their role in governance, the UNP said today. The House will meet tomorrow for the first time for the year 2011.

Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga told Daily Mirror that his party asked for a debate in this regard.  Mr. Amaratunga said that the debate on the extension of the state of emergency would be taken up on Wednesday.

“The Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill will be debated on Tuesday. However, the government is not going to hold the election under the new system. Therefore, we are going to ask the government to postpone the Bill,” he said.

During the budget debate, the opposition MPs argued that the government had sidelined the senior members. Also, they said that these seniors now idle even without a proper place to work in. However, the government noted that these members had been assigned to co-ordinate the work of other Cabinet ministers as announced in the gazette notification too.

Already, the Ministries of Education, Youth Affairs, Higher Education and Sports have started working under the guidance of Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunasekara. (Kelum Bandara)