Minister wants Parliament shifted to Hambantota

Hambantota now has all the infrastructure, but what is lacking currently is a Parliament, Disaster Management Minister, Mahinda Amaraweera, said.

Hambantota currently has superhighways, hotels, a harbour, an airport, and railway systems. He said, events such as Independence Day celebrations and the Deyata Kirula exhibition, which were formerly confined to Colombo, are now held elsewhere in the country, in different cities and villages, and added that therefore, temporarily taking Parliament to Hambantota would not be an unwise move.

“Even in the era of kings, the land was governed from various parts of the country, including Kandy and Jayewardenepura-Kotte. As a result of shifting the location of the seat of governance, those areas had developed exponentially. A massive change can come about if we shift the present Parliament to Hambantota for just a couple of years. After all, people now have the capacity to come and go quickly, and aside from the international conference halls and sports grounds, we have many things to bear witness to, and see. Thus, it is both my personal and professional opinion, which I have officially and unofficially told the President, that Parliament must and should be shifted to Hambantota,” Amaraweera said. Though, agreeing with the beneficial aspects, highlighting the infrastructure development in Hambantota, made in the Minister’s statement, Deputy Speaker, Chandima Weerakkody, told Ceylon Today, “One must be mindful that Parliament in any country is situated in the capital or closer to it so as to benefit the people and the system. It is not practical or possible to shift the ministries and affiliated services like the Attorney General’s Department and the Legal Draftsman’s Department, which are all based in Colombo. The government has lined up the development priorities and this is not one of them.”

(Ceylon Today)