Valuation Department officials have been asked to re-submit its report on the cost of damage to Parliament property after taking the replacement cost into consideration, Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri said.
The Special Parliamentary Committee that investigates into the unruly incidents in the Chamber on November 14, 15 and 16 met at the Parliamentary complex yesterday.
“We met the Valuation Department officials and discussed on the discrepancy of the figures of the property damages. As per our estimates, the cost stood at Rs.330,000 whereas the Valuation Department estimation stood at Rs 175,000. The Department officials expressed the view that the equipment had been in use for about 1-2 years in Parliament. However, we asked them to consider the replacement value of those damaged equipment and produce the report again by next Monday,” Deputy Speaker Kumarasiri, who heads the Committee, explained.
Speaking to the Daily News, the Deputy Speaker said that the Committee has identified the MPs who were directly involved in the unruly incidents in the Chamber. “We have prepared a summary of those incidents after scrutinizing all relevant video footages. It will be submitted to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and through him to the Attorney General,” he said.
“We also discussed the matter of obtaining statements from all 225 MPs with the Attorney General’s Department.
If we are taking this case to the Supreme Court, then there should be a thorough investigation and obtaining statements from all 225 MPs has become necessary. We must not allow any space for this case to be a failure. Police may record statements from MPs in batches,” he added.
Asked whether Speaker Jayasuriya would initiate disciplinary action based on the committee’s report, Kumarasiri said the Speaker could not do anything beyond preventing those MPs from coming to Parliament for a period of one week to one month. “That is why we need to make use of the provisions of the Parliamentary Privileges Act to take action against those MPs. The CID is putting their optimum effort into this investigation,” he observed.
The committee will meet again on January 8. The six-member Committee appointed by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya on November 29 also includes MPs Chamal Rajapaksa, Bimal Ratnayake, Mavai Senadhiraja, Ranjith Maddumabandara and Chandrasiri Gajadheera. However, UPFA MPs Chamal Rajapaksa and Chandrasiri Gajadheera do not attend the committee meetings.
Attacking Police personnel and MPs with water mixed with chili powder and a wooden chair, sneaking in a knife into the Chamber, pouring water on the Speaker’s Chair, damaging the microphones on the Speaker’s table, hurling the copies of the Constitution and other books at MPs, exchanging fisticuffs, hurling abuses at the Chair and conducting mock sittings were some of the indecent incidents unveiled in Parliament on November 14, 15 and 16.
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