Opposition parties united against Govt over lack of slots in parliamentary bodies

Opposition parties yesterday met to discuss ways and means to challenge the government. Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa chaired the meeting according to a statement released by the Opposition Leader’s office.   

Premadasa appealed to all political party leaders to join in the effort to win the rights of the opposition and to raise the issue both in and outside Parliament.. Premadasa stressed the need for a strong opposition both in and out of Parliament,” according to the statement.   

MP Ravi Karunanayake when contacted by Daily Mirror confirmed that he too attended the meeting and the main topic was the government’s stance in giving slots to opposition in the committees. “We will come out with a strategy next week,” he said.   

Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader Mano Ganesan who has also attended yesterday’s meeting said the opposition parties will meet for another discussion next week and would finalize a strategy to take up the ruling party. “The ruling party wants 70 percent representation in all parliamentary committees. The tradition in Parliament has been the ruling party get to enjoy a majority of two members in each committee than the opposition. However the NPP wants 70 percent of its members in each committee while the opposition could enjoy only 30 percent. All opposition parties are striving to take this matter up together and to get more slots in the committees,” he said.   

MPs P Digambaram, Anuradha Jayaratne and Shanakiyan Rasamanickam were among those who were present at the meeting.