Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP, State Minister Sanath Nishantha has now become one of the most preferred payment modes for settling bills, especially electricity bills.

The State Minister was in the news last week after he had paid Rs. 2.6 million to settle the electricity bill for SLPP Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa’s wedding reception in 2019.

The State Minister had stated that he had settled the relevant electricity bill although Namal was not responsible for covering the bill since it had been incurred by the Presidential Security Division (PSD) for the security of VVIPs who had attended the wedding ceremonies.

According to Nishantha, the decision to pay the bill was in gratitude towards former President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR), who he stated had played a key role in safeguarding the country from terrorism and promoting the country’s development.

The State Minister had further stated that he had used his personal funds to settle the electricity bill.

However, after paying Namal’s electricity bill, there were reports of Nishantha saying that he had decided to pay the electric bills of low-income families of SLPP members.

He had reportedly posted a message stating that he was glad to learn about Namal’s electricity bill settlement and had therefore decided to pay the electricity bills of people from low-income families through his Sanath Nishantha foundation.

However, Nishantha had later said that he had not undertaken to pay anyone’s electricity bills and that he had received over 1,500 requests from people asking him to pay their electricity bills.

Despite reports of him stating that he would pay the electricity bills of low-income families of SLPPers or any other person, Nishantha had told the media towards the weekend that he had not made such a statement.

He had further accused the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for the incident, saying that it was a ploy of a group of JVPers, adding that he would not be paying any electricity bills of the people who had sent him messages.