{"id":39634,"date":"2015-03-17T18:56:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T22:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=39634"},"modified":"2015-03-17T22:08:36","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T02:08:36","slug":"ex-state-minister-of-higher-educationprof-rajiva-wijesinha-tables-resignation-letter-and-crosses-over-to-opposition-third-row-seat-after-issuing-special-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=39634","title":{"rendered":"Ex-State Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha Tables Resignation Letter and Crosses Over to Opposition Third Row seat After Issuing Special Statement."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy Gagani Weerakoon & Skandha Gunasekara<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Prof.<\/a>

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha<\/p><\/div>\n

Expressing his displeasure over the conduct of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the incumbent government, former State Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha crossed over to the Opposition yesterday.<\/p>\n

He said the move to gazette the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and transfer of executive powers to the Prime Minister is both ill-timed and a wrong decision, thus, he can no longer be a part of the government.<\/p>\n

After making a special statement, he crossed the Well of the House and occupied a seat in the third row of the Opposition.<\/p>\n

Prof. Wijesinha emphasized that he will continue to operate as an independent member and is committed to President Maithripala Sirisena, as he still believes he is the only person who could perceive good governance and not someone else who lies to the August assembly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Explaining further, he said that in fact, Prime Minister Wickremasinghe lied to the House stating that he (Wijesinha) is still functioning in his office as the State Minister, despite his letter of resignation being forwarded and his salary check being recalled.<\/p>\n

Prof. Wijesinha said the transfer of executive powers to the Prime Minister is extremely dangerous considering the way the incumbent Prime Minister is conducting himself.<\/p>\n

The Constitutional reforms have not been implemented yet, and the Prime Minister is already acting as if he has executive powers, he stressed.<\/p>\n

“I am explaining my position about a question raised about two weeks ago. I had hoped it would not be necessary to explain what occurred, which led to my resignation. I am compelled, however, to speak, given that a misleading account was given to the House. <\/p>\n

MP Dinesh Gunawardena, who raised the question, spoke to me the next day and said the indication given by the response was that nothing has changed. <\/p>\n

I spoke to the Prime Minister and said it was wrong for him to imply that I was still a State Minister. His response was that my resignation was not accepted. But as he should know better than me, such acceptance is not relevant. The Constitution is very clear.<\/p>\n

A Minister holds office unless he resigns by writing, under his hand, addressed to President. To confirm my resignation, I am tabling my letter of resignation in both English and Sinhala. It is clear that I resigned with effect from 17 February 2015, a month ago. <\/p>\n

The ministry accepted my resignation by taking back the salary check issued to me, and sending me a fresh check with half a month’s salary,” he said<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Ceylon Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gagani Weerakoon & Skandha Gunasekara Expressing his displeasure over the conduct of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the incumbent government, former State Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha crossed over to the Opposition yesterday. He said the move to gazette the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and transfer of executive powers to the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Ex-State Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha Tables Resignation Letter and Crosses Over to Opposition Third Row seat After Issuing Special Statement.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39660,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39634\/revisions\/39660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}