Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Thursday, 28 May 2020 00:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The remains of the Leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and Minister of Community Empowerment and Estate Infrastructure Arumugam Thondaman, who passed away on Tuesday (26 May), will lie in State at the Assembly Hall of Parliament today from 10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
This is to enable the former parliamentarians and parliamentary employees to pay their last respects.
Thondaman passed away following a heart attack on Tuesday night at the age of 56.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, ministers and former parliamentarians, including former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, will pay their last respects to their late parliamentary colleague at the Parliament premises today.
Ministers, former MPs, diplomats, staff of the Parliament, and officials from Departments and institutes affiliated with the Parliament who wish to pay their last respects, too, will be able to do so tomorrow, Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake said.
Arumugam Thondaman was born on 29 May 1964 and was an old boy of Royal College. He was the grandson of the founder of the CWC, Saumyamoorthy Thondaman, and first entered Parliament in 1994 and has represented the Nuwara Eliya district consecutively since then.
Many have paid tribute to the CWC Leader with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa saying he is deeply saddened by the untimely demise of Thondaman. “He served his community with dedication and stood for the rights of plantation workers,” the President said, sending his condolences to his family and friends.
UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, too, expressed his sympathies to the family of Arumugam Thondaman. “As a leader who served his people faithfully, his absence will be felt across communities in Sri Lanka,” he added. Thondaman’s funeral will take place on Sunday (31 May) at Norwood Stadium in Nuwara Eliya.
