The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Bimal Rathnayake said Ministers and MPs should attend Parliament on time, but noted that urgent circumstances sometimes require postponements. He explained that he had prepared a practical response to Kader Mastan’s request to run the “Koneswara” train from Kankesanthurai to Galkissa, after consulting railway officials and reviewing operational issues, including repairs to a new engine expected by the 9th. He stated that he was later informed the relevant Member could not attend due to an urgent matter, and asked that the House proceed while recognizing such procedural difficulties.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 When something special arises, there are instances where time is sought. Also, as MPs we are bound to attend Parliament on time. Hon. Ravi Karunanayake, if you faced an inconvenience because the Deputy Minister of Finance could not come, I can only say that. Regarding Hon. Kader Mastan’s Question, I rechecked the answer last night. I prepared a practical answer. He asked to run the “Koneswara” train from Kankesanthurai to Galkissa. Mr. Speaker, you know I cannot just order that. I brought in railway officials, prepared a plan, examined everything and came with the answer. The new engine will be repaired by the 9th.
¶ 02 This morning the Secretary to the Leader of the House informed me that due to an urgent matter the Member cannot attend and to answer on another day. What am I to do? Mr. Speaker, these are not novel problems in Sri Lanka. Please understand and let us proceed.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 6 June 2025 ·No. 1750753418078417 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/28400
Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 June 2025. No. 1750753418078417. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/28400