Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader and Joint Opposition MP Udaya Gammanpila said Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had accepted the No Confidence Motion (NCM) submitted by the Joint Opposition against Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen and the JO intends to ask for an early date for the debate.
He also said that since one day would not be enough for the debate, they intend to ask for two days to debate the motion.
Responding to social media claims that the NCM against Minister Bathiudeen by the Opposition had been rejected by the Speaker due to shortcomings, Gammanpila said it was a lie. “Not only have we submitted the motion, it has been accepted and included in the Order Book of Parliament.”
He said party leaders are scheduled to meet today (21) to prepare the agenda for Parliament. Therefore, the Opposition team led by Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa intends to urge the Speaker to fix an early date to debate this motion.
“The people are frustrated and are under tension. They are disgruntled with Minister Bathiudeen and they should have the right to have this issue raised in Parliament and rest assured that their concerns are taken into consideration. Hence, debating this motion is the ideal way to relieve them of this frustration and anger. Therefore, we will urge the Speaker to fix an early date for the debate,” Gammnapila said.
He noted that they had only listed 10 allegations against Minister Bathiudeen in the motion. “But we have a huge list of other allegations against him supported by evidence. We did not include everything in the motion as we needed to have something new for the media to report during the debate.”
Gammanpila said that one day would not suffice for the debate and said that the Opposition intends to ask for at least two days for the motion against Minister Bathiudeen to be debated in Parliament.
from daily news