Leader of the House: 50% public petitions go unaddressed

Leader of the House and Transport Minister Bimal Ratnayake told Parliament on Saturday that he believed that at least 50 percent of the public petitions received by Parliament had not been investigated.

Ratnayake said so during a crosstalk following a point of order raised by SJB Polonnaruwa District MP Kins Nelson, who argued that public petitions submitted to the committee by MPs were not investigated.

“We present the petitions we receive from the public to the House and to the Public Petitions Committee. However, many of them are not looked into. I recall that there were a large number of public petitions presented during the Ninth Parliament, but none of them were answered. Even in this Tenth Parliament, we see many MPs presenting petitions from the public at the beginning of each sitting day. These petitions do not receive any attention, and the grievances of the people are not addressed when these petitions are discarded without investigation. What is the point of presenting petitions if they are not even read? People send these petitions because they have no other way of seeking redress. Therefore, I call on the Speaker to pay attention to this issue and ensure justice for people’s concerns,” Nelson said.

Leader of the House and Transport Minister Bimal Ratnayake: “This is an important issue. We call on the Speaker to allocate time for the Chairman of the Public Petitions Committee to update the House on the current status.”

Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne then asked the Chairman of the Public Petitions Committee, MP Gamini Ratnayake, to clarify the situation.

Ratnayake explained that 543 petitions had been received by the Ninth Parliament and they had remained unaddressed. These petitions were discarded following the dissolution of Parliament. So far, the Tenth Parliament has received 351 petitions, of which 57 had been looked into, and 34 issues had been resolved. Leader of the House and Minister Ratnayake: “I, too, have been a member of the Public Petitions Committee. Many petitions are received in each parliamentary session, and it requires a lot of manpower to investigate all of them. It is my belief that no Parliament has been able to address at least 50 percent of the public petitions. We suggest that the committee form subcommittees to process the petitions.

By Saman Indrajith

from The Island https://ift.tt/EIlS2Wn