Gayantha says heavy responsibility as Lands and Parliamentary Reforms Ministrer

Tuesday, 23 May 2017 00:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Newly appointed Minister of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms Gayantha Karunathilake said yesterday that he has heavy responsibility from now on.

“I was working as the Media and Parliament Rehabilitation minister since last two and half years. I believed that ministry gave me opportunities to work with media institutions and other relevant authorities to establish a sound media freedom in the country. When President MaithripalaSirisena took over the country in 2015, it was a black era for journalists and media. Numbers of journalists were killed and went missing and no one had taken any step against the suspects and involvers of those incidents. As a Government we were planned to avoid such practices and we implemented new mechanisms to build up media freedom and as the minister I worked close to all media streams. I gave the supreme freedom for them and never bother anyone. Further we were able to enact the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was a significant requirement of that time. I was really glad to be the media minister who was behind that enactment.”

“Now I have been appointed as the Land and Parliamentary Reforms Minister, which actually a heavy responsibility for me. But I am really blessed to have such privilege because now I could work close to people who are in each corner of the country. As the new land minister I should work with each and every provinces and I hope to define a mechanism to solve the land releasing problem. According to our manifesto we had promised public to take immediate action to distribute deeds of the lands for above 100,000 people who are not owning a land and my first duty as the minister would be that.”