10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

Jathika Jana balawegaya· National List· 20 March 2026 ·Procedural: Procedural: Sitting Hours Amendment

Parliamentary Procedure
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Bimal Rathnayake moved a procedural motion to vary the sitting hours for the day, scheduling sittings from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 1.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m., suspending Standing Order 8(5) at 11.30 a.m., and requiring adjournment at 5.30 p.m.; the motion was agreed to. He also noted the retirement of Senior Telephone Operator B. Sisira Kumara after 40 years of service to Parliament and conveyed Parliament’s wishes for his retirement.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I move:

¶ 02 “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Standing Order 8 of the Parliament, this day’s Sitting shall be from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and from 1.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. Standing Order 8(5) shall be suspended at 11.30 a.m. The Speaker shall adjourn the Parliament at 5.30 p.m.”

¶ 03 Question put, and agreed to.

¶ 04 Hon. Speaker, with your permission, I wish to take 30 minutes.

¶ 05 Hon. Speaker, Mr. B. Sisira Kumara, who has served as the Senior Telephone Operator of Parliament for 40 years from 1986 to 2026, retires today after 40 years of service. On behalf of Parliament, we wish him a very happy retirement for his dedicated service.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Friday, 20 March 2026 ·No. 23396 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column
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Permalink
/lk/speeches/8393

Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 20 March 2026. No. 23396. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/8393