The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Hon. Bimal Rathnayake argued that if Parliament agrees to continue sittings without a lunch break, Members should remain in the Chamber and participate rather than leaving after proposing an extended debate. Referring to a previous six-hour flood debate where attendance was low, he said meaningful debate requires the presence of MPs and officials, and noted that the Government side still had 16 minutes of speaking time to use.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Yes, but his core point stands. Another day, you asked for a six-hour debate on floods — we sat till 9.30 p.m., and hardly anyone was here except Northern and Eastern MPs. If we say “let’s continue without a break,” Members should also be present to listen. Not from the canteen. If those proposing to continue then leave, is that not a problem? We, on the Government side, still have 16 minutes remaining; we will use our time.
¶ 02 If we proceed without a lunch break, then Members must remain for the debate; officials and Members need to hear it here, not from the canteen. How many of us are here now?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 7 January 2025 ·No. 1736487038022510 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/16029
Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 7 January 2025. No. 1736487038022510. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/16029