JVP MP Polgampola resigns

Chaminda PERERA

COLOMBO:Kegalle district MP Anuruddha Polgampola yesterday tendered his resignation to Deputy Parliamentary Secretary General Dhammika Dissanayake.

MP Polgampola was elected to Parliament from the Kegalle district at the 2004 General Election. The Parliament yesterday informed the Elections Commissioner of his resignation. Sources said the seat that fell vacant with his resignation will be filled by Lalith Dissanayake of the SLFP who is next in line in terms of UPFA preferential votes in the Kegalle district.

Dissanayake who was earlier in the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council held the post of Deputy Chairman of Parliamentary Committees from 1994 to 2000.

Polgampola is to be questioned by the CID over the alleged trafficking of a person to Japan in the guise of his assistant.

He has also been interrogated by Japanese Immigration and Emigration officials at the Narita International Airport. Meanwhile Party Propaganda Secretary Vijitha Herath MP yesterday said the MP resigned on a decision of the JVP Central Committee.

He was asked to vacate the seat after his alleged involvement in the trafficking of a person to Japan and MP Polgampola humbly accepted the Central Committee’s edict and resigned from his Parliamentary seat, he said.