Sittings suspended for want of speakers

By Saman Indrajith

Parliament sittings were suspended around 1.20 pm for want of speakers to continue the Second Reading debate on the Banking (Amendment) Bill yesterday.

Twenty-one MPs and Ministers, listed as speakers for the debate from both government and Opposition, were missing when their names were read out by Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapakshe around 1.20 pm and announced suspension till 4 pm. Fifteen MPs from the Opposition and six government MPs were not present in the Chamber.

The names of the missing MPs were Dr. Harsh de Silva, M.A. Sumanthiran, Vijitha Herath, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Niroshan Perera, S.M. Marikkar, Prof. Charitha Herath, Gamini Waleboda, Nalaka Godahewa, Thushara Indunil Amarasena, P. Velukumar, Udaya Kumar, Charles Nirmalanathan, Selvaraja Kajendran and Weerasumana Weerasinghe from the opposition. Prof. Rajith Perera, Suren Raghawan, M. Musharaff, Banduala Gunawardena, Suresh Wadivel and Shehan Semasinghe were the six missing government speakers.

Parliament sources said that some of these MPs were seen in the parliamentary canteens and libraries while their names were called in the Chamber.

In addition to the Banking (Amendment) Bill a set of Regulations under the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act were listed to be debated yesterday.