The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Bimal Rathnayake tabled a written answer stating that there is no management–employee dispute over planting a sapling from the Sacred Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi at the Port, but approval has not been granted due to lack of proper authorization, concerns over saline water ingress, and objections related to organizing mandatory Poya day worship. The Port’s Top Management Committee considered a request said to be from employees and decided not to permit planting another Bo tree on Port land. Employees have been informed, and further studies on Galle Port development plans and saline intrusion are to be conducted before any appropriate action is taken.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I table the answer.
¶ 02 Answer tabled:
¶ 03 (a)(i) There is no dispute between the Port management and employees regarding planting a sapling from the Sacred Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi.
¶ 04 (a)(ii) Obstacles: - Absence of proper authorization to re-plant a Bo sapling within the Port. - Sea-water ingress: the previous Bo tree is said to have perished due to saline intrusion into the Port area. - Objections by some as mandatory Bo worship ceremonies on every Poya day would require organizing groups of employees to attend.
¶ 05 (a)(iii) A request purportedly from a group of Port employees was considered by the Top Management Committee, which decided not to grant approval to plant another Bo tree within Port land.
¶ 06 (a)(iv) Employees have been informed. Studies will be carried out regarding Galle Port development plans and saline water intrusion, and appropriate action will be taken in due course.
¶ 07 (b) Does not arise.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Saturday, 1 March 2025 ·No. 1741955797040395 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 1 March 2025. No. 1741955797040395. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/165