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| Wednesday, 3 December 2003 |
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| House sittings suspended by our Parliament correspondent Parliament sittings were suspended for 10 minutes yesterday due to a dispute owing to the absence of several opposition members whose names were listed for speaking on the day's debate. The incident occurred at the commencement of sittings when Speaker Joseph Michael Perera invited Ratnapura District PA MP Pavithra Wanniarachchi who was also scheduled to move the Rs. 10 token cut on the Subject Ministry and then start the debate. Wanniarachchi was not present in the House and this compelled the Speaker to invite another opposition member to move the cut. Kandy district PA MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage present in the House with a few other PA members came to the opposition's rescue and moved the cut. However, this drew protests from the government benches with Minister A. H. M. Azwer, raising a point of order, and expressing his protest. Ruling out the point of order raised by Azwer, the Speaker said anyone from the opposition can move the cut. Thereafter, the speaker read out the list of PA MPs scheduled to speak on the debate, but no one was present in the House. Again, PA MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage rose to his feet to make a speech. Protesting against this, Azwer said the opposition has no responsibility and members whose names are not in the list given by the chief opposition whip also cannot be allowed to speak. "The Opposition is making mockery out of Parliament. Never in the history, this kind of incident has happened. No one has ever missed the opportunity to move a cut," Azwer said. In the ensuing commotion, the Speaker suspended sittings for 10 minutes. After the House resumed, Wanniarachchi who was then present in the House, continued with the committee stage debate on the Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation. |
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