• Arresting of people for submitting posts on social media should be avoided

By Yohan Perera  

The Government should introduce an amendment to the prevention of terrorism Act (PTA) to prevent arresting of people based on  social media posts, Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed over the weekend.  
This is one of the few proposals which Mr. Wickremesinghe came out with when he was asked questions on various issues faced by Sri Lanka during a webinar organized by the UNP led youth group “Parapura” on Saturday.  “An amendment should be brought into PTA where a person could be arrested only if he or she engaged in terrorist activities. Arresting of people for submitting a post on social media should be avoided. “Also either Supreme Courts could propose amendments to the PTA of Parliament could discuss and decide on necessary amendments to the legislation,” he said.  

Coming up with another proposal, Mr.Wickremesinghe said Batticaloa Airport could be made use of to develop the domestic air travel industry if its runway is expanded, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said over the weekend.   

 “Aviation industry had fallen because of the current pandemic situation. However Sri Lanka could benefit from the aviation industry if the government worked with India and even with Maldives. We started negotiations with India during our regime. We discussed with India to develop Palaly Airport. We also focused on introducing regional air traffic from India to Mattala. Our aim was to bring in Indian tourists to Kataragama. However these talks have stopped now. Also the Batticaloa Airport could be made use of if the runway is extended,” he said. 

 
Referring to the question on he Kotelawala University which is also becoming a hot topic in Sri Lanka, the former Prime Minister said it could be kept as a defense university. “There will be issues if it offers other courses. The other issue is that fees are to be charged without offering students 
any concession.