Dinesh blows a fuse over no live P’ment coverage

Friday, 6 February 2015 00:58 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent The delayed live telecast of parliamentary proceedings caused a stir in the House yesterday. Opposition lawmaker Dinesh Gunwardena accused the Government of dragging its feet to launch the service, citing deliberate attempts to disregard transparency and good governance.

Drawing attention to a possible disregard of a directive of the Speaker for live telecasts to be aired, MP Gunawardena said: “The Speaker’s directive is found on page 40 of the 20th hansard report. But there was no live broadcast. Who are the officers who disregarded the Speaker’s assurance? I like to request the Budget debate in full to be broadcast live.” In response Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe assured the House that he would find out the reasons for the delay and start the transmission as soon as possible. “In fact the live telecast is a part of our 100-day program. However, we need to be careful about the behaviour also. When the Speaker returns we will meet him along with party leaders to resolve these issues,” the Prime Minister said. Meanwhile Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said: “When I brought this up while in the Opposition the transmission was discontinued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa.”