In an unusual deviation from parliamentary traditions and standing orders, copies of  bills presented in Parliament had been delivered to the residence of United National  Party (UNP) MP Ajith P. Perera and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) office on Saturday, party officials said yesterday.

According to Standing Orders, copies of bills presented in the House should be placed on  the tables of each MP. However, when the Government presented 20 finance bills in  Parliament last Friday, sufficient copies were not available to be placed on the MPs’  tables. After objections raised by the opposition, the government promised to hand over  separate sets of bills to each member, but that too did not happen.

At the end of day’s business, UNP MP Ajith P. Perera raised this issue. He said he had  received only 15 copies and therefore the remaining five bills could not be considered  as presented in Parliament.

“If a bill is presented, a copy should be kept on our tables. This is the tradition.

There are no such copies tabled,” he said.

JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti also raised the same issue, and expressed his concern over the  delay.  

Meanwhile, Mr. Perera told Daily Mirror yesterday that the office of the Leader of the  House had delivered some of the copies at 1.00 am on Saturday.
“A vehicle had arrived near my residence and my neighbours had noted the occupant  behaving in a suspicious manner. 

When the alarmed neighbours had made inquiries one of  the occupants had handed over the parcel containing the copies of bills to be handed  over to me. Is this how parliamentary officials act,” he asked.  “The UNP will object to  this act when Parliament meets on February 19. There is callous disregard of the  Standing Orders.”

The JVP also said it had received the copies of the bills at midnight on Friday.

JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a news conference that these Bills had not been  presented to the House in keeping with Standing Orders. He said all members should  receive copies of the Bills beforehand so that they could file objections if necessary.

“Therefore this is a clear violation of Standing Orders,” he added.  Mr. Dissanayake  said Parliament Proceedings cannot be blatantly violated in this high handed manner. (Kelum Bandara and Yohan Perera)