The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I state with responsibility. We are discussing questions very properly. We have agreed which ones the Deputy Minister should answer and which ones I should answer. I listened to the question. I understood that an attempt is being made to do cheap, petty politics within this. Therefore, before I answered, I let the cat out of the bag. What did he do? He did not ask a supplementary question. What did the Deputy Minister say? He said “look after.” That means, regarding that road—I asked for the English translation. Please listen. They are trying to make a headline in some newspaper: “The NPP Government is weakening Provincial Councils.” That is the kind of cheap drama. We are working in good faith. Fair-minded MPs in the North and East know this, even if some do not, how fairly we are working and how much we are delivering.

¶ 02 Hon. Member, I say with respect that the Deputy Minister did not say anything wrong. He said the RDA will look after those roads. That is what this Member turned into something else. I know everyone’s official roles. Therefore, I tried to answer accordingly. I went to the Batticaloa DCC; the Deputy Minister did not come that day. We worked in good faith—when allocating three times more money to Provincial Councils—No, no. Hon. Speaker, he must take responsibility for wasting time. He created a preface to the answer I was to give. If you want to do racist politics, do it, but do not expose it here in an ugly way. We will not let you perform that play here. Remember that.