JO guns for Rajitha with no-confidence motion

Health Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne smiling at a press conference yesterday after 39 Joint Opposition (JO) MPs signed a no-confidence motion against him and handed it to the Speaker of Parliament 

- Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

By Ashwin Hemmathagama 

– Our Lobby Correspondent

The UPFA Joint Opposition group yesterday submitted a no-confidence motion against Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Dr. Rajitha Senaratne in Parliament. 

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya received this motion, which contained 39 signatures of members of the UPFA Joint Opposition group.

The Joint Opposition accused Dr. Senaratne under 11 points in their motion, including allegedly evading investigations against him filed at the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption sometime ago, leaving room for a serious crisis in medical education in Sri Lanka by arbitrarily using state power to enable businessmen to lay their hands on medical education, bias towards SAITM during the appeal court case, questionable behaviour during the move to take over the Neville Fernando Hospital in Malabe, deliberately delaying the gazette setting minimum standards for medical education, inability to control the spread of dengue, financial misappropriation, including the questionable leasing of the Fisheries Harbour in Modara.

Some Joint Opposition lawmakers who endorsed the motion included their group leader in Parliament Dinesh Gunawardena, Wimal Weerawansa, Bandula Gunawardena, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Shehan Semasinghe, Geetha Kumarasinghe, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Dullas Allahapperuma, Kumara Welgama, Priyankara Jayaratne, C.B. Rathnayake, Prasanna Ranatunga, Mohan P. de Silva, Kanchana Wijesekara, Sisira Jayakody, Udaya Padmashantha, Namal Rajapaksa, Piyal NIshantha, Prasanna Ranaweera, Kanaka Herath, Tharaka Balasuriya, Indika Anurudda, Niroshan Premaratne, Jayantha Samaraweera, Johnston Fernando, Vidura Wickramanayake, Shriyani Wijewickrama, Salinda Dissanayake, Weerakumara Dissanayake, Vijitha Berugoda, Ranjith de Soyza and Ramesh Pathirana.