“No excuse. If any culprits in every nook and corner of the world, all should be brought before the law and punished…”

“The President including our government will not safeguard any culprit…”

Ravi Karunanayaka
Minister of Power, Energy and Business Development

‘We should look for the people who are safeguarding the culprits who make our younger generation into drug addict destroying not only their life and but also the future of this country. I strongly protest this type of habit which puts our tomorrow’s innocent younger generation into astray who may rule this country in future. I have paid my special attention on elimination of drug addiction since I stepped in my political journey. In last election, under the shadow of this issue we were fired and many problems caused. Our moral characters were tarnished with this. Therefore, no excuse. If any culprits in every nook and corner of the world, all should be brought before the law and punished. The President including our government will not safeguard any culprit’ said Minister Ravi Karunanayaka.

The Minister said this, in responding to a question raised by media persons following an official visit made today morning (11) on Hon. Ashad Shali, the Governor of Western Province. This official visit was made to find solutions at national level for provincial council related issues and discuss how the power sector can be made involved in this regard.

Minister Ravi Karunanayaka further added…,

‘I made my visit today in order to discuss how the power sector can be made involved in finding solutions in national level for provincial council related matters. We are looking for a strategy which can build up people’s living standards, solve their issues faced by them, and reduce such issues, hardships and pressures. The Auditor General pointed out in last couple of days, that 25‍% is misused from government funds due to financial corruption and fraud. I talked about this in 2000. These types of malpractices are found. I really appreciate such statement by Auditor General. We have to find practical solution as we are talking. Dragging the issues is not the solution for them. Such issues should be settled in fast track. If the solution which should be taken is made, we can find solutions for the problems what we have. Therefore, we have to look for the places where such problems and malpractices exist, and take action to eliminate such condition. ‘People believe that every place has corruption. Therefore, good workers are not exceptional from blame. We have to properly identify the places where problems exist. For this purpose, I have come to a good solution at my ministry level. After implementing anything only, we can find any problem in ministries. I am giving open invitation to media personals and well-wishers to look for whether any corruptions, frauds or malpractices exist in my ministry and indicate such things if any, before they are take place. Finding solution before anything happens is better than finding solution after anything happened. I believe that this system may be put into practice in other ministries’.

‘We need a constitution. But, we cannot put it by force. Therefore, it is necessary to bring a constitution through people themselves where their aspiration can be fulfilled. We have to introduce a constitution which creates a conducive environment where all citizens whether Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burgers or Malay can live with full liberty claiming that this is my country. This constitution should include a concept of a unitary state and other aspects of giving first place to Buddhism, respecting all other religions. This matter today has been misused by some parties as a device to create problems to the President and the government as well’.