Hon. Darmapriya Wijesinghe

Hon. Darmapriya Wijesinghe criticised the conduct of a group of Opposition MPs, alleging they have been misusing procedural time slots—particularly the period from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. reserved for preliminary business such as announcements, tabling of papers, and questions—to cause deliberate disruptions before the main legislative agenda begins. He argued this abuse of Standing Orders undermines Parliament's primary function of lawmaking and disrespects public expectations of the institution. Despite the Government holding a two-thirds majority, he stated restraint had been exercised for over a year, but called on the Opposition to improve its conduct, noting that Opposition benches were frequently empty and that disruptions had extended to heckling Members and obstructing the Speaker. He invited members of the public to observe proceedings from the galleries as evidence of the conduct he described.

Hon. Darmapriya Wijesinghe addressed Parliament on behalf of Hon. R.G. Wijerathna, indicating that the question being raised was submitted by another member. No further substantive content, argument, or specific proposal is discernible from the speech as recorded.

Hon. Darmapriya Wijesinghe, on behalf of Hon. Rajeevan Jeyachandramoorthy, submitted a written question (No. 1012/2025) to the Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs seeking comprehensive data on financial cybercrimes in Sri Lanka. The question requests a categorical breakdown of complaints across offence types (including credit card fraud, phishing, SIM swapping, and investment scams), as well as information on whether any category has shown significant increase over the past three years. It further inquires about crime trends at both national and Northern Province levels, the existence of a centralized district/provincial monitoring mechanism, and whether such data is publicly available or shared with financial institutions.

Hon. Dharmapriya Wijesinghe formally tabled two public petitions in Parliament on 5 February 2026, submitted by Mr. R.A.D.E. Ranathunga of Pasiyala and Mr. W.A. Kamalsiri of Veyangoda. Both petitions were ordered to be referred to the Committee on Public Petitions for further consideration.