The Hon. (Dr.) Najith Indika

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, thank you for the opportunity.

¶ 02 We are in our first year of government, bringing many nationally important Bills long delayed — including the Proceeds of Crime law and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill — and now this NBRI Bill. We are putting a system in place.

¶ 03 There has been much talk again about the CEB. Some said we should keep what Ranil brought intact; others said we tore it up to gain power. Let me be clear, as explained when we passed the new Electricity Bill: the previous law enabled splitting CEB into 12 for sale. We repealed that and brought a new law for efficiency, explicitly keeping 100 per cent ownership with the State. Yet falsehoods continue.

¶ 04 On jobs: claims that 23,000 workers will be terminated are false. Only voluntary retirement is offered with enhanced benefits. Submitting demands, reaching agreements, and then shifting goalposts is unfair. The CEB exists to supply electricity to the people and industry, just as hospitals exist to treat patients. Employee entitlements are respected, but the primary mission must be remembered. Our targets are to enhance efficiency, ensure adequate supply by 2028, and reduce tariffs by 30 per cent by 2028 through necessary reforms.

¶ 05 On narcotics: there is intense debate. Is it because the President intervened personally in an arrest? Because a powerful minister is implicated? Because compromised police officers were promoted? No — the reason is that unprecedented quantities of drugs are being seized — from houses, lorries, and underground caches — at volumes never seen before. That is why society is stirred: because we are actually catching them. More will come to light.

¶ 06 We now see seizures even in places like Tangalle, Middeniya, Netolpitiya, Hambantota, where such things were never seen before. We will see if there are links to the current political unease and media theatrics with every seizure. The drug menace has devastated families; in poor areas like Thotalanga in Colombo North, of 270 shanties, police said every home once had drugs; in Modara, Kotahena and Mattakkuliya, children aged 12–13 were using ice. We are turning that around. If not for this change of government, ice would still be sold openly in places like Tangalle.

¶ 07 Alongside development programs and people’s relief, the foremost challenge we must defeat is the narcotics scourge. This government has rolled up its sleeves and is making decisive progress. Let us see who is exposed as we proceed. Thank you.