A group of parliamentarians led by Opposition MP Lalith Ellawala, who initially planned to bring a no-confidence motion (NCM) against Public Security Minister Tiran Alles and instead planned to enter into a negotiation-based approach with Alles and the relevant officials, including the Inspector General of Police (IGP), regarding the elimination of crimes in the country, has again decided to move an NCM against Alles.
Ellawala, who was earlier a ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna MP and is now representing the Freedom People’s Congress led by MP Dullas Alahapperuma, recently warned of an NCM against Alles if the latter fails to take the required measures to address the rising crime rate and crackdown on organised criminal activities.
Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (12), he said that the group of MPs that planned to move an NCM against Alles had met and discussed the matter recently. “We met and discussed this matter. It was discussed that what we need is to see an end to this wave of crimes. Even if we bring an NCM against Alles, the Government MPs will get together and defeat it. So we decided against moving an NCM, and chose to meet the minister and other officials, including the IGP, and request them to take immediate action to curb crimes.”
Although there was some reduction in crimes in the country at the time of their meeting, he said that the situation had changed now. “When we met and discussed this matter, the occurrence of crimes saw some reduction, but now they have increased again. So we have decided, once again, to move an NCM against Alles to at least express our displeasure over the matter. We know that the Government may defeat it, but we can at least be happy that we made an attempt to reduce crimes in the country.”
While speaking to The Daily Morning on an earlier occasion, Ellawala said that the decision to move an NCM against Alles had been taken following discussions with both Opposition and Government MPs. He said at the time that he was confident that both Government and Opposition MPs would support it.
Commenting on the warnings of an NCM against him to The Daily Morning recently, Alles charged that Ellawala’s statement had proven the latter’s ignorance of drug and organised crime-related activities. Claiming that organised crime and drug-related activities could not be brought to an end within a short period of time, he said that someone’s demand to achieve it within a month displays nothing but their ignorance.