The Hon. (Ms.) Lakmali Hemachandra, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Deputy Chairperson.

¶ 02 Hon. Deputy Chair, the Opposition’s Hon. Anuradha Jayaratne spoke about an office complex for Kandy lawyers. Let me respond first. During the election period, Hon. Jayaratne and then Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe laid a foundation stone to build a lawyers’ office complex without first obtaining an official UDA release of the land. Even now, the land has not been released. Lawyers need offices—indeed, we are lawyers ourselves—but allocating land or building lawyers’ office complexes is not the mandate of the Justice Ministry. However, the Judiciary and the Kandy Bar Association have discussed the matter. As Government, we will do what we lawfully can; but first the land must be duly released before laying foundation stones. Former politicians, unfortunately including Hon. Jayaratne, often do it the other way around.

¶ 03 Turning to Transport: under the Advisory Council on Transport, the Subcommittee on transport law reform is working. Public transport—bus and rail—is a public service that also has a huge macroeconomic impact. When public transport weakens, people shift massively to private transport, causing urban congestion and air pollution, and higher foreign exchange costs for fuel and vehicle imports. Good public transport enhances national labour productivity and connectivity, reduces externalities and environmental harm.

¶ 04 We examined 2011–2021, road safety, basic needs for good public transport—safe roads, safe vehicles, safe users. The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011–2021) applied. In the past five years, 12,240 people died in Sri Lanka due to road accidents.