• ‘‘Thanks to the President I was given a State Ministry. So please don’t call me an MP
• The Speaker who could not hold back his laughter at what the State Minister had said ended up apologizing to cool Chamara’s temper

By Jamila Husain

Sri Lanka’s Parliament which faces more fights and arguments than valuable speeches in recent times, saw a different kind of an argument emerge today when the Speaker was told off by a state minister for being called just an MP.  

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Parliamentarian Buddhika Pathirana told the House during the second reading of the budget that the security sticker pasted on bottles  of liquor had been forged recently.    MP Pathirana said the racket is being carried out with the knowledge of certain Excise Department officials and requested an immediate inquiry into the matter.   The security sticker for the bottles of liquor was introduced last year by the Excise Department on the instructions of the Ministry of Finance.   Controversy reigned when the project was launched as many accused that the task of printing the sticker had been granted to an infamous Indian company called Madras Security Printers (MSP), which was even blacklisted in India.