The Hon. (Mrs.) Anushka Thilakarathne, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, several Opposition Members spoke about independence of the law, rule of law, and equality. Our people are not in a coma, as some seem to think; they are fully aware. They remember what happened to judges—especially to a distinguished woman, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake—brought before Parliament, her dignity destroyed, and the Rule of Law trampled. Shouting and waving hands will not change public opinion.

¶ 02 Today we are approving the extension of the Emergency, primarily due to Cyclone “Ditva,” the biggest natural disaster in our history. The Opposition claims the Government did nothing, sitting with folded hands. I table a report as at 18.05.2026 on housing damage: by that date, in all 25 districts, 6,097 houses suffered total damage and 109,593 partial damage. Each totally damaged house is entitled to Rs. 500,000. If anyone claims otherwise, go to any court; we will answer.

¶ 03 Cyclone “Ditva” was not planned by the NPP Government to trigger landslides, floods, illegal constructions, or environmental destruction. It was a disaster no one anticipated. We must answer carefully, not in haste. There are legal and sectoral constraints. We must consider environmental conditions where we rebuild, and ensure resettlement in safe places where no one’s life will be at risk again. Our institutional capacity and human resources are limited; we are still managing and responding within those constraints. Therefore, the Opposition’s claims that we are idle are baseless.

¶ 04 They also shout that many remain in safe shelters and we do nothing. That is false. We are caring for all in such centres, using limited funds and manpower efficiently.

¶ 05 Let me also note the Rs. 25,000 allowance: 431,524 have been deemed eligible; as at 08.05.2026, 430,668 had received it. For the Rs. 50,000 allowance, 167,354 beneficiaries were identified; 166,247 had received it by that date. This is public money, disbursed with due process and circulars. We cannot hand out money arbitrarily for political gain. Those who did so are now in trouble; we even saw a court ruling today imposing imprisonment.

¶ 06 We humbly accept that people are suffering and some issues remain unresolved; we take responsibility as a Government. But we will not accept the Opposition’s baseless din.

¶ 07 Let me remind the House of good things this Government has done in the past one and a half years under President Anura Dissanayake. We have already supplied 16 cardiac catheterization machines worth Rs. 3,103 million to hospitals—unprecedented. We increased the minimum public sector salary to Rs. 40,000 and private sector to Rs. 30,000. We raised the chena workers’ daily wage to Rs. 1,750, solving a long-standing issue.

¶ 08 As a woman, I highlight: we allocated Rs. 765 million to procure seven mammography machines for early detection of breast cancer; five have already arrived. In the power sector, we installed 16 state-of-the-art grid-scale solar battery storage systems to address critical gaps.

¶ 09 To those alleging we are stoking nationalism via the Emergency, I say: we allocated Rs. 100 million to develop the Jaffna Public Library—the heart of reading, literature, and culture. If we were chauvinists, we could have spent that in Sinhala areas. We did not. We chose the Jaffna Library because it is a national symbol of learning and humanity.