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Wednesday, 23 November 2016 01:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Journalists who had waited two hours for the arrival of Minister Susil Premajayantha for a press briefing at the Government Information Department yesterday were turned away after they were informed that the Minister was apparently unable to leave a Cabinet meeting.
The press conference on budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research was scheduled to begin at 10.00 a.m. About 40 minutes later, media personnel were directed to the refreshments area for tea, which many took as a sure sign the event would not take place till at least 12 noon.
The clock struck 12 and it was not the Minister who greeted the journalists but an aide who announced that Minister Premajayantha was unable to get out of an important cabinet meeting he had been required to attend, much to the chagrin of those present.
In fairness, however, the aide apologised profusely and thanked the journalists for their patience, urging them to attend the same conference which would be rescheduled for a later date.
This comes in the wake of a similar incident where Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake declared his absence from a news conference after keeping journalists waiting indefinitely.
