Visa issuance : Can’t revert to old system as IT system changed: Minister

Colombo, August 09 (Daily Mirror) -  Practical issues have arisen in reverting to the old visa system as the IT system has been changed as per the regulations passed by Parliament when introducing the new system, Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said today.

He told a news conference that they discussed with Mobitel to revert to the old system of issuing visas soon after the Supreme Court decision and that the change of IT system has been an obstacle to do that.

The Minister said this while responding to a question that the Minister must take the responsibility for not reverting to the old system as per the Supreme Court decision.

"I have no responsibility. We discussed with Mobitel to revert to the previous system soon after the Supreme Court decision. What happened is, that once the system was switched off, we cannot switch it on the following day. We have changed the IT system as per the regulations passed by Parliament," he said.

The Minister said they will have to either pass new regulations in Parliament and revert to the old system or file submissions in the Supreme Court.

"The Attorney General is looking into the matter now. Our representatives did not make submissions. Only the petitioners made their submissions. Our representatives could not make submissions because we had not got the papers regarding the case. Mobitel also informed us in their letter to us that they also could not make submissions as they also had received papers on August 2," he said.