… wants SLPP leaders to gather and discuss secret energy deal
By Prabhath Withana
Industries Minister Wimal Weerawansa says that issues that should be discussed and sorted out at SLPP party leaders’ meeting cannot be solved at a meeting of the party’s parliamentary group.
Responding to journalists who asked why he had boycotted a recent parliamentary group meeting, headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Minister said that the right forum to discuss the issues pertaining to giving the Kerawalapitiya LNG Power Plant to an American company should have been the SLPP party leaders’ meeting.
“The President convened a parliamentary group meeting which was attended by more than 100 MPs. There is no point in discussing the Kerawalapitiya power plant issue at such a forum. We have 11 parties in the ruling alliance and leaders of those parties needed to discuss the issue with the Minister of Finance because he was the one who brought a Cabinet paper pertaining to the issue of the power plant. It is the Finance Minister who knows better than the President about that issue. The meeting should have been held between him and other party leaders,” the minister said.
Minister Weerawansa said so while speaking to journalists at Welipenna on Tuesday during an inspection tour there to observe the processes of an automobile assembly plant of the Mahindra Ideal Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
Asked to comment on the fertiliser issue, the minister said that chemical fertiliser producing companies had lobbied certain parties and funded protests to get the government to stop promoting organic fertiliser. “It is good that the President and Agriculture Minister are standing by the decision to ban chemical fertilisers. There is an ongoing debate on the issue. There may be losses in this season but it will change in the coming seasons. We have to stick to the decision we made and promote organic fertiliser thinking of the future of this country without worrying about temporary losses,” the Minister said.
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