Colombo (TIP): Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka on November 18 appointed a 21-member Cabinet in the new NPP government, keeping with his pre-election promise to streamline the governance system and ease the burden on taxpayers.
The National People’s Power (NPP) has been advocating a smaller government to reduce costs for the public. Since the NPP won the presidential election in September, the government functioned with just three ministers, including the President.
As per the island nation’s Constitution, there is a provision for appointing a 30-member Cabinet.
Dissanayaka retained the finance and defence portfolios, while appointing 12 new parliament members to key positions and entrusting eight veteran members, who have served since 2000, with significant responsibilities.
Among the fresh faces in the Cabinet are five professors. Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, who holds the education portfolio, and Saroja Savithri Paulraj, who has the women and child affairs portfolio, are the two women members in the Cabinet. Paulraj, a minority Tamil from the Sinhala majority south, was involved in the party’s long struggle.
A significant feature of the swearing-in ceremony was Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekaran, who took his oath in Tamil, highlighting the representation of the minority community in the new government.
The new parliament will convene on Thursday.
The NPP, led by Dissanayake, swept the parliamentary elections held on Thursday by winning a two-thirds majority. It also dominated the Jaffna electoral district — the heartland of the nation’s Tamil minority. The NPP won a near 62 per cent of the vote, 2/3rd majority of 159 seats in the 225-member Assembly.
21 members appointed
Dissanayaka retains finance, defence portfolios
12 new members, 8 veterans appointed
Five professors among fresh faces
Women members include Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya (education), Saroja Savithri Paulraj (women and child affairs)
(Reuters)
Great post. I was checking constantly this weblog and I’m impressed! Very helpful info specifically the remaining part :) I deal with such information a lot. I was looking for this certain information for a very lengthy time. Thank you and best of luck.
Thanks for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting information.
Thankyou for this marvelous post, I am glad I discovered this internet site on yahoo.
You are my inspiration , I own few blogs and rarely run out from to post .
Thank you for each of your work on this blog. My aunt loves doing investigations and it’s obvious why. I learn all about the powerful medium you provide functional ideas by means of the web site and in addition recommend contribution from other ones about this area and our favorite girl is certainly starting to learn a lot of things. Take pleasure in the rest of the year. You’re performing a fantastic job.
I will immediately grab your rss feed as I can not in finding your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Please permit me realize in order that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
You should take part in a contest for top-of-the-line blogs on the web. I’ll recommend this website!
Some truly quality posts on this web site, saved to my bookmarks.
Excellent weblog here! Also your web site rather a lot up very fast! What host are you the usage of? Can I get your associate hyperlink to your host? I wish my site loaded up as fast as yours lol
Hello would you mind letting me know which web host you’re working with? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you suggest a good internet hosting provider at a honest price? Thanks, I appreciate it!
Some really excellent blog posts on this internet site, thanks for contribution. “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” by Arnold Glasgow.