Sri Lanka parliament to debate Kandapola shooting

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2004, 00:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Parliament Speaker, Mr.W.J.M.Lokkubandara, Thursday agreed to allocate time for a debate in the parliament on the Kandapola incident last week in which two Tamil youths were killed when the police opened fire on a group of upcountry Tamils, political sources in Colombo said.

Upcountry People’s Front (UPF) leader Mr.Periayasamy Chandrasekaran had requested the Speaker for a debate into the said incident.

The parliament meets on May 18 to elect the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees.

Mr.Lokkubandara said that the censure motion on the Kandapola incident would be included in the agenda on May 18 and half a day will be allocated on May 19 for the debate, parliamentary sources said.

Parliamentarians of Tamil National Alliance Messrs R.Sampanthan, Joseph Pararajasingham, Selvam Adaikalanathan, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and United national Party parliamentarian Mr. T.Maheswaran participated in the discussion with Mr. Chandrasekaran, sources said.

The censure motion on the Kandapola incident would be proposed by Mr.Chandraksekaran and seconded by Mr.Maheswaran, according to another decision taken at the discussion.

It was also decided that all TNA parliamentarians should participate in the debate.

Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) led by Mr.Arumugam Thondaman and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Mr.Rauff Hakim would also be asked to speak in support of the censure motion, the UPF sources said.