The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development and the Leader of the House of Parliament

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, the Opposition’s no-confidence motion against the Minister of Energy has not been signed by every Opposition party — only by SJB Members, Rajapaksa-aligned Members, and one from the Independent Group. That context matters.

¶ 02 The motion makes three charges:

¶ 03 1) That the Minister failed to ensure adequate quantity and quality of coal for Lakvijaya (Norochcholai).

¶ 04 2) That, under Gazette 2412/08 of 25 November 2024, he failed to take necessary steps to minimize institutional losses and technical issues in generation and distribution and reduce costs and uncertainties in power generation.

¶ 05 3) That he has been indicted under section 70 of the Bribery Act over alleged acts while Procurement Manager of Lanka Fertilizer, with indictments filed before the High Court of Colombo.

¶ 06 On process: coal procurement has three parts. First, the procurement procedure itself. The current procedure that Sri Lanka follows was established in 2023 — before this Minister — and we continue with it. Many institutional tender processes predate us; we have not invented a new one for coal. We operate the inherited system and enforce it.