JEDB Chairman resigns due to undue influencing by Minister: MP

The JEDB Chairman has tendered his resignation after refusing to handover a 70 acre plot of land to a relative of the subject minister

By Yohan Perera

Janatha Estate Development Board (JEDB) Chairman has tendered his resignation after being influenced by the secretary Ministry of Plantation industries to hand over a 70 acre land in Pannala to a relative of the subject minister, Opposition MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake alleged in Parliament yesterday.   

The MP said the JEDB Chairman has tendered his resignation after refusing to handover the land to the relative of the minister.   

He alleged that the ministry secretary has influenced the JEDB Chairman to allow relatives of the minister to occupy circuit bungalows.   

“State officers are not the only ones who have been subjected to undue influence as Judges are also suffering the same fate,” the MP said,   

“A Judge who was attached to Mount Lavinia District court who presided over the cases against Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe and Secretary Ministry of Public Security Ravi Seneviratne has been transferred. The country has never seen this kind of influence in the judicial system,” he said.   

“ If you think you can rule this country by influencing the police and the judiciary you will succeed only for a short time,” he added.   

Furthermore the MP recalled that ten judges have been interdicted during recent times for misconduct