Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr.Nalinda Jayatissa was elected as the President of the Sri Lanka - India Parliamentary Friendship Association
MPs G.G. Ponnambalam, J.C. Alawathuwala, Thanura Dissanayake, Ravi Karunanayake were elected as the Vice - Presidents of the association while MP (Dr.) Kavinda Heshan Jayawardhana was elected as the Secretary.
MPs Sivagnanam Shritharan and Anushka Thilakarathne were elected as Assistant Secretaries and Sundaralingam Pradeep as the Treasurer of the Association.
Speaker (Dr.) Jagath Wickramaratne and High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha were the Guests of Honour at the inaugural meeting of the Association.
The meeting saw participation of nearly a 100 members including several Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MPs across political groups.
Shri Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Parliament of India sent a special letter to the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka congratulating him and fellow MPs on the re-convening of the Sri Lanka-India Parliamentary Friendship Association.
Speaking at the event, Speaker Wickramaratne emphasised the unparalleled connect of shared history, religion and culture between India and Sri Lanka. He shared that India had time and again demonstrated itself as a reliable friend of Sri Lanka and welcomed the continuing expansion of the bilateral partnership.
In his remarks, the High Commissioner underlined the shared democratic traditions between the two ‘civilizational twins’. Congratulating the President, office bearers and members of the Association, he expressed confidence that the Parliamentary Friendship Association further re-energies and bolstered the people-to-people connect between India and Sri Lanka.
During the recent visit of Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka in April 2025, 1000 training slots for Sri Lankans were announced.
These slots cut across sectors ranging from Parliamentarians, civil services, entrepreneurship to music and cinema.
Under this, the first batch of Parliamentarians and Parliamentary Staff will be heading to New Delhi for a week-long training at the Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE) in May 2025.
Read this week’s Sunday Times for your interesting articles including the ’’5th Column’’.
The Customs Department said it will be publish the names of institutions and individuals who violate customs laws and commit tax fraud by uploading the information on its official website www.customs.gov.lk.
A board of inquiry has been appointed to investigate the death of a student at the University of Sabaragamuwa, reportedly linked to a ragging incident.
Leave Comments