The Hon. (Dr.) Kavinda Heshan Jayawardhana

¶ 01 [1.30 p.m.]

¶ 02 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, I express sorrow and condolences to families of those who lost lives, and to those who lost property or are ill. As a Catholic, I pray for the repose of the souls. We also saw the beauty of our people—their warm hearts sharing what they had with the helpless. Our neighbours too extended support; we thank them.

¶ 03 Tens of thousands of lives were lost; the incumbent government must take responsibility. Tens of thousands lost property; the government must take responsibility. The full responsibility lies with this government. Why? Because relevant agencies repeatedly issued warnings with evidence; they informed and provided sufficient information. Yet the government failed to take measures to minimize environmental and human loss.

¶ 04 After the disaster struck, the government failed to manage it properly. We saw Ministers and MPs trying to do the duties of Grama Niladharis, District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries—chaos. They failed to do the job properly, trying instead to enforce the Pelawatte narrative. Despite being fully informed, they did not manage well, and post-disaster service delivery has had huge gaps.

¶ 05 I note the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Act, No. 13 of 2005. We recall that in 2004, Ranil Wickremesinghe was set to bring it; subsequently in 2005, President Rajapaksa brought it to Parliament.

¶ 06 The National Disaster Management Plan was not activated on 27th November. Instead, Friday, 28th November, the most crucial day for the operations, was…