The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition
Sajith Premadasa argued that officials such as Directors General and Secretaries should not merely accept committee recommendations but independently assess their accuracy. Referring to concerns raised about violations of religious and cultural practices, he requested basic aggregate statistics on affected persons and maintained that the process had targeted a community using false data. He called on the Government to initiate and lead a compensation programme for the families who suffered.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I raise this now because we have a little time.
¶ 02 Hon. Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe said the Secretary and DG had to accept the recommendations given by a committee. In my view, that is not sufficient. Upon receiving recommendations, the DGs and Secretaries had a responsibility to analyze and assess their correctness instead of simply accepting them.
¶ 03 Secondly, Hon. Rauff Hakeem raised an important point. At the very least, the aggregate number and basic statistics of those whose religious and cultural practices were cruelly violated should be provided.
¶ 04 Finally, to be frank, you are right, Leader of the House: it was a process that targeted a nation and a religion using false data against an entire community. Therefore, we insist that families who suffered must be compensated. I propose that the Government initiate and lead such a compensation program.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 December 2024 ·No. 1734685396083959 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 December 2024. No. 1734685396083959. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/18172