24 June 2021 09:34 am Views - 711
By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana
Solitary UNP MP Ranil Wickremesinghe who made his maiden speech in the current Parliament yesterday called for a debate on vesting the responsibility of controlling COVID-19 pandemic with the Cabinet, as the COVID Task Force has failed in accomplishing it properly.
“The cabinet has thrown away its responsibility of controlling the pandemic as per sections 3,4 and 43 of the constitution. The government consists of political leadership, the state officers and the judiciary. It is the political leadership which has received the people’s mandate to handle the pandemic. Therefore the Prime Minister and the cabinet should take over the responsibility of controlling the pandemic. Giving this responsibility of controlling the pandemic to the military is against the constitution,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said. “I expect that others will agree with me to debate on this matter. Therefore we call for a debate,” he added. He alleged that the COVID task force has failed.
“Sri Lanka is facing various problems. The country’s foreign reserves are down to $4 billion, and the total debt of the CPC is a staggering Rs 3 billion. The IMF has offered $ 78 million while Bangladesh will give $ 200 million. One has to think of an option to come out with these issues, “The Government should come out with an alternative if it does not want to work with the IMF,” he also said.