The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam
Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam highlighted the dependence of North and East communities on fisheries, agriculture and livestock, and thanked the Government and Eastern Province Governor for progressing funding for a bridge between Kaluvankeni and Punnakkuda to assist fishers during the monsoon. He said decisions from a District Development Committee meeting on fisheries had not been implemented, particularly the request for marine-grade beacon lights at key coastal locations to guide small boats returning offshore. He noted that only inadequate solar lights had been received despite claims of funding, and sought fulfilment of the State Minister’s assurance to provide proper beacon lights.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member.
¶ 02 Hon. Fisheries State Minister, please wear your headphones.
¶ 03 In the North and East, livelihoods depend mainly on fisheries, agriculture, and livestock. Early this year, I requested a bridge connecting Kaluvankeni and Punnakkuda, as fishers suffer during the monsoon. The Eastern Province Governor allocated funds and is proceeding. We appreciate good actions; I thank the Government for this.
¶ 04 Regarding fisheries in our district, there was a District Development Committee meeting on fisheries. The Hon. Minister could not attend due to other commitments; the State Minister attended. We made several requests. Unfortunately, none of the decisions taken have been implemented. This cannot be due to procedural issues, given what we asked: beacon lights at six key locations—Kayankerni, Palatithonna, Kaluvankeni, Punnakkuda, Thalavai, etc.—to guide small boats returning from offshore. Instead, after six months, no funds or beacon lights have arrived. The State Minister says funds were allocated, but we received only small solar lights suitable for parking three-wheelers, not marine-grade beacons.
¶ 05 The State Minister has now assured in this House that proper beacon lights will be provided. Hope sustains life; we trust you will deliver on this commitment.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Wednesday, 26 November 2025 ·No. 22993 ·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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/lk/speeches/22078
Cite as: The Hon. Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 26 November 2025. No. 22993. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/22078