Govt. assures continued facilities for TNA leader

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

Government has no intension to curtail facilities enjoyed by Illankai Tamil Arasu Kacchi MP Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardena told Parliament yesterday.

“This Government will not be interested in making any changes. During the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, all the necessary security was provided to Mr. Sampanthan and all the members of Parliament from the Northern Province. This shows that we have not been politically biased in any of these decisions. We will continue to adhere to that and if any facilities that have been provided as a result of the office one holds its up to any of the relevant former Ministers, Deputy Ministers or the former Leader of the Opposition to decide in accordance with the normal procedure,” confirmed Minister Gunawardena. 

Illankai Tamil Arasu Kacchi MP Rajavarothiam Sampanthan

However, MP Sampanthan was unhappy about certain comments some Government lawmakers have made, causing him pain and discomfort.

“I kept quiet because I did not want to create an ugly controversy more public. But I thought I should make a statement, and put the facts on record so that everybody in the country will know the truth. I never asked for any favours, and you gave me a house two years after I became the Leader of the Opposition. If Mahinda Rajapaksa or Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Leader of the Opposition, they would have been given a house the very next day or the next week, but not two years later.  Having done that to me, and making me climb 80 steps for two more years, your members were making unkind remarks about the true state of facts. Therefore, I don’t want to drag this matter any further, and I am thankful for the very gentlemanly statement made by the Leader of the House,” he said.

In his statement regarding the bungalow of the Leader of the Opposition, and other matters related thereto, Sampanthan said: “You recognised me as the Leader of the Opposition of the Sri Lankan Parliament in September 2015. At that time, for over twenty years, as a Member of Parliament, I had been occupying the Summit Flats 2D, where I climbed and descended 60-70 steps every time, I entered the flat or left the flat. Given my age, I’m well past eighty (80), this was very inconvenient and difficult, but I put up with it. I was given the bungalow for the Leader of the Opposition only in September 2017, two years after I became the Leader of the Opposition, and I was able to move into the Opposition Leader’s Bungalow only in September 2017, two years later.”