• Ranjan Jayalal claims he only cited media reports on P’ment’s electricity bill 

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera requested Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana to summon Ceylon Electricity Board Workers’ Union (CEBWU) General Secretary Ranjan Jayalal before the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for allegedly making false allegations regarding Parliament’s electricity bill.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday (23), Wijesekera said that Jayalal had made a false statement on Parliament’s electricity bill, claiming that there was an unpaid bill of Rs. 70 million. He said that he was informed by authorities that both Parliament and the Presidential Secretariat had paid their electricity bills on time without any dues left at the moment.

Therefore, the Minister requested Speaker Abeywardana to summon Jayalal before the Parliamentary Privileges Committee, taking his statement as a breach of privileges of Parliamentarians.

However, Jayalal, speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday, said that the Minister had misinterpreted his statement, where he quoted some allegations reported by certain newspapers. He said that according to the newspapers, over Rs. 70 million had to be recovered from Parliament for the CEB, and that he had therefore merely queried as to why the Minister did not take any action to recover that amount. 

Therefore, he said that he had not made any false statements, as the Minister claimed. In a recent press conference, Jayalal claimed that Parliament owed over Rs. 70 million to the CEB for six months, that the Presidential Secretariat owed Rs. 22 million to the CEB, and that former President and incumbent Government MP Mahinda Rajapaksa’s wife Shiranthi Rajapaksa was yet to settle a Rs. 900,000 electricity bill. He also urged the Minister to first collect the respective unpaid bills before suspending CEB workers who engaged in trade union action.