Record number of visitors in Parliament

Irangika Range, Sandasen Marasinghe and Disna Mudalige

The Budget debate which ended yesterday goes to the records of local Parliamentary history as the debate which drew the highest number of visitors.

An estimated 25,740 schoolchildren had visited Parliament during the nine days of the debate. From June 30 to yesterday, children belonging to 246 schools had witnessed the debate proceedings from the public gallery.

Over 4,500 Government officials and guests of Parliamentarians had visited the Parliament during the nine days.

The highest number of children (6,846) had come on July 2. Five thousand three hundred and fifty children visited Parliament yesterday to watch the last day of the debate. Since the debates were held until 9.30pm, Parliamentary officials allowed children to visit the gallery until 8.30pm.