METE OUT JUSTICE TO BHARATHA PREMACHANDRA’S FAMILY : MPS
Government and opposition parliamentarians, who spoke during the condolence vote on Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra yesterday, stressed the need for justice to be meted out to his family members.
Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senaratne said it was a tragedy that Mr. Premachnadra had to meet with an untimely death. He recalled how Mr. Premachnadra worked tirelessly for the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party during the 1987 terror period.
“He worked with sheer commitment unlike those who changed their political parties for the fear of losing the licence for a radio station,” Dr. Senaratne said.
Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera recalled how Mr. Pre-
He worked with sheer commitment unlike those who changed their political parties for the fear of losing the licence for a radio station. He drug dealers also to be punished
machnadra tabled a private member’s motion in 1995 seeking the implementation of the death sentence against drug dealers. He said Mr. Premachnadra was of the opinion that drug dealers should be dealtwith in the same manner that drug addicts were treated.
“Even today drug addicts are brought to book without any hesitation but drug dealers are allowed to move about freely,” he said.
Languages and National Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said the greatest tribute one can pay Mr. Premachandra was to get the police and the judiciary to act against his killers.
Senior Minister D. E. W. Gunasekera who also highlighted similar sentiments said action should be taken against whom the Court had issued arrest warrants. He said it was the corrupt, violent politics that prevailed today which killed Mr. Premachndra. Mr. Gunasekera said this political culture was created by the present electoral system, the market economy and the 1978 Constitution as a whole.
JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the killing of Mr. Premachndra was ironical as the armed gangs that moving about freely had even turned their guns on a former presidential adviser on trade unions. He said the culprits who are behind this killing should be brought to book as it was possible unlike in other killings such as those of D. M. Dasssanayake and Jeyaraj Fernandopulle who were killed during the war.