A future NPP government will take steps to bring in new laws to abolish perks and privileges currently enjoyed by MPs and former Presidents at a time when the people of this country are facing a severe economic crisis, National People’s Power (NPP) Executive Committee member Sunil Handunnetti said yesterday.
“Privileges which are not enjoyed by the ordinary people should not be enjoyed by the people’s representatives,” he said.
“We are drafting legislation to abolish all the privileges including pensions not only for former Presidents, but also for former Ministers and former MPs. We will draft a new Bill for that. We believe that people’s representatives should not get any privileges that are not available for the public. They should be abolished by law. We have already entrusted the responsibility to our legal association in this regard. We come to politics to serve the public and we should not be engaged in politics as a job or business. As the first responsible task of an NPP government, we will remove all these privileges and create a public governance that is accountable to the public,” Handunnetti said.