Rajiva threatens to resign

15 February 2015 06:00 pm

Professor Rajiva Wijesinghe said today that he had written to President, Maithripala Sirisena saying he would resign his post as State Minister of Higher Education if he were not allowed to take decisions relating to his duties.

Professor Wijesinghe told Daily Mirror that he had considered several options and one was to resign his post.

He had written to the president on Wednesday about the situation that would arise if decisions were taken without consulting his ministry.

He had said that decisions taken like that could not be approved by him and cited the removal of the University Grants Commission chairperson as an example.

However, according to sources close to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the chairperson had been asked to resign in keeping with the policy of the new government -- which was to ask all officials attached to state institutions to vacate their posts.

In response to his letter, Professor Wijesinghe had been told that the president had informed Highways, Investment Promotion and Higher Education Minister Kabir Hashim -- though Prof. Wijesinghe had not been informed.

Prof. Wijesinghe had requested the president to make him a cabinet minister in order to solve the problem. 
 
Professor Wijesinghe said he had tried to contact the prime minister yesterday but he had been away. However he was confident that the prime minister would take up the matter today and come up with a satisfactory solution.