Roshan Ranasinghe sacked

* Fails to reply to President’s questions

* Questions rationale behind Contacting Indian Cricket Board with Sajith and Kiriella

* Removed from Sports, Youth Affairs and Irrigation ministerial portfolios

* Harin appointed as Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Pavithra as Minister of Irrigation

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has handed over the letter of removal from office to Minister Roshan Ranasinghe for not having a proper answer to two questions that the President raised at him over the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Irrigation.

The President presided over the Cabinat Ministers’ meeting in Committee Hall 3 of the Parliament Complex and took steps to handover this letter there.

President Wickremesinghe had taken steps to hold the Cabinet meeting yesterday (27) evening at the Parliament Complex in order to not disturb the Budget time period. As soon as he arrived at the ministerial meeting held in the evening at the Parliament Complex, the President had addressed two questions to Ranasinghe.

The first question that the President had asked was when the Cabinet had already appointed a Sub-Committee to discuss with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to resolve the cricket crisis, why did he as the Sports Minister go to the office of the Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa to resolve the cricket crisis with Premadasa and Opposition MP Lakshman Kiriella and talk to the Indian Cricket Board in India through the Indian High Commissioner’s office.

The second question that the President raised was why the majority of the people proposed in the Cabinet paper he presented as the Minister for the distribution of Mahaweli lands were his political friends and relatives.

Asked why he did so, the President has also pointed out that it is a problem to do this while innocent people are there who need to own the land.

The President handed over the letter to remove the minister from the ministerial positions pointing out the breach of Cabinet unity due to the minister not having answered both those questions that the President raised at him.

This will make history as the first instance where a minister has been removed from the office after a Cabinet discussion, political sources said.

The post Roshan Ranasinghe sacked appeared first on DailyNews.